United States and China Meet to Plan Program on Emerging and Reemerging Infectious Diseases

March 28, 2006 - A high-level U.S. delegation of health experts met in China on March 6 and 7, 2006, with officials from the Chinese Ministry of Health for the First Annual Meeting of the Collaborative Committee of the Joint U.S.-Chinese Program on Emerging and Re-Emerging Infectious Diseases.

On October 30, 2005, Chinese Minister of Health Gao Qiang and the U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Michael O. Leavitt signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish the Program on Emerging and Re-Emerging Diseases. Chinese President Hu Jintao and the U.S. President George W. Bush subsequently signed a Concept Paper on China-U.S. Joint Actions on Avian Influenza in Beijing on November 20, 2005.

The program is designed to promote research in the epidemiology, prevention, control, diagnosis, and treatment of infectious diseases, and to enhance the operational aspects of preparedness and response to emerging infectious disease threats. Activities will include disease surveillance, laboratory testing, diagnosis, treatment, and joint investigations of outbreaks.

At the first meeting of the Collaborative Committee, Dr. Ren Minghui, Deputy Director-General of the Department of International Cooperation within the Chinese Ministry of Health, served as Chair. The U.S. experts included: Craig Shapiro, HHS Health Attaché, at the U.S. Embassy, Beijing; Dr. Stephen Blount, Director, Coordinating Office for Global Health of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); Dr. Carole Heilman, Director of the Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health within HHS; and Dr. Leigh Sawyer from the HHS Office of Public Health Emergency Preparedness. The Chinese members of the Collaborative Committee included: Dr. Liu Yanfei, Director-General of the Ministry of Health; Dr. Ren Minghui, Ministry of Health; Drs. Liang Dongming and Xiao Donglou, also of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Wang Yu, Director-General of China CDC, and Dr. He Wei, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Last revised: November 20, 2007