ITALY SEEKS USG PARTNERS FOR BIOCONTAINMENT FACILITIES;

UNCLAS ROME 001093 SENSITIVE SIPDIS EUR/WE FOR HARTMANN EUR/PGI FOR OSTFIELD AND PARKER-BURNS OES/IHB FOR WINN STATE PASS TO AID/GH/HIDN USDA PASS TO APHIS HHS PASS TO CDC HHS FOR OGHA E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO KFLU ECON KCOR KTFN PTER IT SUBJECT: ITALY SEEKS USG PARTNERS FOR BIOCONTAINMENT FACILITIES; EUR/PGI DISCUSSIONS IN ITALY ON BIOTERRORISM, H1H1 FLU ¶1. (SBU) Summary. The director of Italy's National Infectious Disease Institute told EUR/PGI Director Marc Ostfield on September 11 that he is interested in potential USG partners to collaborate with a new containment facility in Rome for the treatment and management of patients with highly infectious diseases, and with a biocontainment laboratory that the institute is building in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. He also discussed current issues in Italy's efforts to combat H1N1 influenza. End summary. ¶2. (U) Marc Ostfield, Director of the EUR Office of Policy and Global Issues (EUR/PGI),was a featured speaker at the 6th European Congress on Tropical Medicine and International Health, September 7-9, held in Verona, Italy. In his remarks addressing the session topic "Bioterrorism: Myth or Reality? Realistic Threat or Waste of Time?" he exhorted health researchers and scientists from across Europe and the developing world to think about ways to enhance transatlantic work against bioterrorism that simultaneously strengthens global cooperation on public health. While in Italy, Dr. Ostfield also met with Government of Italy (GOI) officials in Rome to talk about a range of issues, including H1N1 influenza and health cooperation. ¶3. (SBU) On September 11, Ostfield and SCICouns met with Prof. Giuseppe Ippolito, Scientific Director of the Spallanzani Institute, Italy's National Institute of Infectious Diseases. Prof. Ippolito began the discussion with a strong diatribe against what he termed the overblown political "hype" around H1N1 influenza, indicating that while there are flu-related concerns, policy makers and politicians need to calm down. He noted that the GOI will spend almost all its newly-allocated funds for H1N1 flu (400 million euro) for vaccines. Ippolito also said the GOI is wrestling with liability/insurance issues. The re-insurer the GOI uses will charge very different rates depending on how voluntary or obligatory the vaccination is, and how clearly that level of voluntary choice is documented, he said. ¶4. (SBU) Prof. Ippolito and members of his team toured Ostfield and SCICouns through Spallanzani's nearly-finished, ultra-modern, and very expensive level-4 containment facility for the treatment and management of patients with highly infectious diseases such as viral hemorrhagic fevers -- and asked for ideas about potential USG partners such as DOD and DHS for collaboration with the new facility (such as the U.S. making use of this new resource in Rome for disease cases from within Europe and from Africa). The Spallanzani Institute, which already has one level-4 facility, currently provides training for staff and receives biomedical samples for analysis from other countries in the Mediterranean, and has an agreement with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization to treat its employees who contract unusual diseases. Ippolito also expressed interest in enhanced bilateral collaboration on infectious disease research, and potential partnership with the U.S. on a biocontainment laboratory that Italy is building in Bagamoyo, Tanzania. THORNE