GERMANY H1N1 FLU UPDATE: 301 CONFIRMED CASES

UNCLAS BERLIN 000754 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EUR/CE PETER SCHROEDER STATE FOR OES/IHB STATE FOR AID/GH/HIDN USDA PASS TO APHIS HHS PASS TO CDC HHS FOR OGHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU ECON PREL SOCI CASC EAGR MX GM SUBJECT: GERMANY H1N1 FLU UPDATE: 301 CONFIRMED CASES REF: A) Berlin 747, B) Berlin 744 and previous. ¶1. (SBU) SUMMARY: The number of H1N1 cases in Germany rose to 301 on June 23, as twenty-three new infections were confirmed. END SUMMARY. ¶2. (SBU) On June 23, the National Reference Center for Influenza at the Robert Koch Institute (RKI) announced in its press briefing 23 new laboratory-confirmed cases of H1N1 for Germany. This increases the total number of confirmed cases in Germany to 301 (Refs A, B and previous). The new cases were distributed among the federal states as follows: North Rhine-Westphalia (13),Rhineland-Palatine (2),Baden- Wuerttemberg (2),Bavaria (5),Saxony (1),Hesse (1) and Lower-Saxony (-1). Infections in North Rhine-Westphalia continuo to Increase -------------- ¶3. (SBU) Thirteen of the 23 newly confirmed cases reported today occurred in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW). NRW remains the state showing the highest number of infections among all the German states with 146 confirmed cases, followed by Bavaria (44 cases) and Baden-Wuerttemberg (33 cases). The Federal State of Saarland remains the only state without confirmed virus cases. The number of confirmed infections resulting from domestic transmission of the virus now sits at ¶157. More Germans to be infected shortly -------------- ¶4. (SBU) German media reports indicate that German virologists expect the virus to spread further, supporting statements made by WHO earlier this week which warned that 1/3 of all Germans could be infected with the new virus by this fall. Experts reportedly cautioned that the actual number of infections in Germany could be ten times as high as the confirmed figure due to the mildness of the virus' symptoms, which makes it hard to recognize an infection in cases exhibiting only light or no symptoms. ¶5. (SBU) In the past two months, two pharmaceutical laboratories in Germany, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals in Dresden (Saxony) und Novartis in Marburg (Hesse),have been working on developing a vaccine for the new virus. According to the media, production of the vaccines will likely not take place this year, as both institutes will run their clinical studies on the vaccines until December of this year. If the virus mutates during this time, the vaccine could be delayed even further. KOENIG