H1N1 PREPAREDNESS DEEMED SUFFICIENT BY GUANGDONG HEALTH

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 GUANGZHOU 000585 SENSITIVE SIPDIS STATE FOR EAP/CM, OES/IHA, MED, CA/OCS/ACS/EAP STATE PASS TO ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE STATE PASS TO USAID FOR ANE AND GH HHS PASS TO OGHA, NIH/FIC, CDC/COGH AND FLU DIV TMOUNTS AND NCOX BANGKOK FOR RMO, CDC, USAID BEIJING FOR HHS HEALTH ATTACHE AND RMO E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU CASC SOCI PREL HK CH SUBJECT: H1N1 PREPAREDNESS DEEMED SUFFICIENT BY GUANGDONG HEALTH OFFICIALS ¶1. (SBU) Summary: Health officials in Guangdong Province, birthplace of SARS and the H5N1 virus in Asia, are confident that they are well prepared to deal with the threat of influenza outbreaks this flu season. Officials expressed confidence that existing H1N1 prevention and control measures --including expanded flu surveillance activities, national plans to produce and distribute H1N1 vaccines, and strict quarantine measures-- would succeed in preventing a serious outbreak. They also believe an H5N1 outbreak is highly unlikely. End Summary. -------------- H1N1 PREVENTION AND CONTROL MEASURES IN PLACE -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Since September 1, at least 2,026 new cases of confirmed H1N1 have been reported, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in Guangdong to 2,851. Of this total, only nine remain hospitalized and 37 are currently under home quarantine according to data available on the Guangdong CDC website. He Jianfeng, Director of the Guangdong's CDC's Epidemic Disease Prevention Institute, told us that no fatalities in Guangdong province had been linked to H1N1 infection. He also noted that hospitalization of H1N1 patients did not necessarily indicate the patient was in serious condition. According to He, it is common practice to hospitalize the first patient in a city or locality with confirmed H1N1 for observation. ¶3. (SBU) Health officials acknowledged in recent meetings that isolated outbreaks at schools were likely to continue through the current flu season. At the same time, officials expressed a high degree of confidence that existing measures would be effective in preventing any serious outbreak. According to Feng Shaomin, Head of the Foreign Affairs Office at the Guangdong Health Department, these measures include the establishment of a joint prevention and control mechanism composed of 33 government agencies under the direction of the Health Department, continued reliance on strict border control measures including quarantine, and the expansion of the flu surveillance network to incorporate all municipalities, Hong Kong and Macao. ¶4. (SBU) Both He and Feng pointed to the strengthening of flu surveillance capacity as a critical element to the province's flu prevention efforts. Since June 2009, according to Feng, the Influenza-like Illness (ILI) surveillance system has expanded from 14 cities to include all 21 cities in the province. The total number of ILI surveillance stations --located in schools, community clinics, and municipal and county-level hospitals --has increased from 52 to 65, according to He, who also noted that the data collected from this network is reflected in weekly and monthly reports available on the CDC website. After noting the success these measures have achieved in controlling the spread of H1N1, Feng added, "The U.S. does not need to worry about us." -------------- - VACCINES ON THEIR WAY, ANTIVIRALS IN STOCKPILE -------------- - ¶5. (SBU) The Central Government announced in early September that an H1N1 vaccine developed by a domestic biotechnology company, Sinovac, had passed clinical trials. News reports indicate that inoculations with the vaccine have already commenced in Beijing. Lin Jinyan, Deputy Director General of the Guangdong CDC, told us at a September 17 meeting that the Ministry of Health (MOH) had already identified Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou as "key areas" under its inoculation plan. According to a contact familiar with the MOH plan, Guangzhou should soon receive a first batch of five million doses. Once the vaccines have been received, Lin stated that the initial batch will be given free of charge to priority groups. ¶6. (SBU) The determination of priority groups will be based on WHO and MOH recommendations, according to Lin, but will definitely include public health and other service workers, e.g. police, border control, and bus drivers. When asked if pregnant women would be considered a priority group, Lin stated that the MOH was still studying the safety issues surrounding inoculation of pregnant GUANGZHOU 00000585 002 OF 002 women. He also noted that Chinese Health Minister Chen Zhu had instructed the MOH to monitor the progress of studies on this issue in other countries and had also asked that caution be exercised when recommending the vaccine to this group. ¶7. (SBU) Guangdong has a total of 200,000 doses of Tamiflu in its stockpile, the majority of which are kept in a central warehouse, according to Wang Jing of the Guangdong Health Department's Emergency Response Office. Wang noted that some doses of Tamiflu are kept at the 109 designated hospitals for treatment of H1N1 cases, and that other hospitals could apply to obtain Tamiflu through an emergency review and approval procedure. According to Feng of the Health Department's Foreign Affairs Office, the Central Government has entered into an agreement with Tamiflu suppliers that would in the event of a national emergency permit local generic production of the vaccine "without having intellectual property issues get in the way." In addition to Tamiflu, Wang noted that several local manufacturers of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) were currently producing antiviral TCMs that could be used to treat H1N1. -------------- NO CHANGE IN QUARANTINE PROCEDURES -------------- ¶8. (SBU) The quarantine procedure for Guangdong province has remain unchanged since the first case was discovered in May, according to Zhang Wen, Division Chief of the Guangdong Inspection and Quarantine Bureau. Zhang stated that according to the procedure, which is identical for foreigners and nationals, all travelers are required to fill in health declaration cards and pass through a body temperature screener at the point of entry. Any traveler with an elevated temperature and severe flu-like symptoms will be sent to a hospital immediately for H1N1 screenings. Travelers with elevated temperatures who display mild flu-like symptoms will be sent to a designated hotel for quarantine until lab tests are completed. If the traveler tests positive for H1N1, he/she will be sent to a designated hospital, at which point a doctor will decide if the patient should remain hospitalized or be placed into home quarantine. (Note: In the Consulate's experience, quarantine measures initially put into place in May were much stricter than current procedures, affecting hundreds, if not thousands of visitors who displayed no symptoms but had arrived on the same flight or train as a suspected H1N1 case. End Note.) -------------- LITTLE CHANCE OF H5N1 OUTBREAK -------------- ¶9. (SBU) According to World Health Organization (WHO) surveillance data, the H5N1 virus was last discovered in Guangdong's poultry in June 2008; human infection with H5N1 has not been reported in Guangdong since February 2008. Regarding the possibility of H5N1 resurgence, Feng from the Guangdong Health Department predicted an extremely low likelihood that a human case of H5N1 would be discovered in the province in the next few months. Feng's assessment was affirmed by officials at the Guangdong CDC and the Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital. ¶10. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Beijing. GOLDBECK