U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Meets with Top Officials in Indonesia to Discuss Collaborative Efforts to Fight Disease | April 14, 2008 – The Honorable Michael O. Leavitt, Secretary, U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services, meets with the Honorable Noer Hassan Wirajuda, Foreign Minister of the Republic of Indonesia. The meeting with the Foreign Minister started a day of meetings with Indonesian senior officials on cooperation between the United States and Indonesia on health issues. (Photo Credit: Christopher Hickey) |
April 14, 2008 – U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt met with President Suslio Bambang Yudhoyono and other senior Indonesian Government officials in Jakarta today. The Secretary emphasized the importance President Bush places on relations with Indonesia, and reviewed collaborative United States-Indonesia efforts to battle malaria, polio, tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS; the status of joint U.S.-Indonesia research initiatives; and Indonesia’s progress to prepare for a pandemic influenza. Secretary Leavitt reiterated the U.S. Government’s desire to expand joint U.S.-Indonesia efforts to fight the spread of the H5N1 virus. He continued to work to resolve the impasse on the sharing of influenza samples, by emphasizing the benefits to the Indonesians of open and transparent scientific exchange, not just to themselves, but to the entire world. The Secretary expressed concern over the Indonesian Government's policies on the sharing of influenza viruses, and emphasized the U.S. Government’s support of work by the World Health Organization (WHO) to increase the availability of influenza vaccines. While the two sides discussed ideas on many aspects of the WHO influenza system, they reached no specific agreements on issues, including Material Transfer Agreements and standard terms and conditions for sharing samples. The U.S. Government desires to avoid encumbrances on the sharing of influenza viruses, and looks forward to the resumption of negotiations on the sample-sharing issue under the framework of the WHO later this year. Secretary Leavitt last visited Indonesia in October 2005. From Jakarta, Secretary Leavitt will travel to Singapore and Viet Nam, where he will attend events on product safety, regional emerging-disease threats, and the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). In Singapore, he will host a lunch with the business community on product safety, and visit the Biopolis complex, which houses much of the country’s biological and pharmaceutical manufacturing and research. He will also meet with the staff of and tour the Regional Emerging Disease Intervention Center, a joint collaboration between the United States and Singapore conceived by President Bush and Singaporean Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong in 2003. In Viet Nam, he will deliver a speech on product safety to the American Chamber of Commerce in Hanoi, and meet with Government officials. In Ho Chi Minh City, he will see first-hand the cooperative efforts between the United States and Viet Nam under the President’s Emergency Plan to help people break the cycle of drug addiction and reduce their risk of contracting or transmitting HIV. For more information:
Last revised: April 21, 2008 | 
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