HHS Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response Visits the European Commission, Germany, and France

Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, RADM Craig Vanderwagen, M.D. with post-doctoral research students at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.

May 20, 2008 – U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, RADM Craig Vanderwagen, M.D., visited the European Commission Health Branch in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, and the countries of Germany and France from May 13 through May 16, 2008.  His stay in Luxembourg focused on the Global Health Security Initiative (GHSI) and the European Commission’s increased emphasis on planning and preparedness efforts as the Member Countries unite to host the 2008 GHSI Ministerial this December.  He learned about the EC's structure for public-health preparedness, and met with the head of the EC Health-Security Committee.

On May 14, 2008, RADM Vanderwagen met with his GHSI counterpart in the German Ministry of Health, Karin Knafmann-Happe, the Director-General for Prevention, Health Protection, Disease Control, and Biomedicine.  He spoke with her and her staff on a range of joint concerns, such as the development and deployment of medical countermeasures.  He closed his day with meetings at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin, including a public-diplomacy event with post-doctoral research students to discuss the future of biomedical investigations and public health.

Assistant Secretary Vanderwagen spent May 15-16, 2008, in France, where he met with senior French health officials to cover areas of mutual interest, such as implementation of the revised International Health Regulations(2005), pandemic-influenza preparedness, and the potential for bilateral research efforts in medical countermeasures.  While in Paris, France, RADM Vanderwagen also visited the Institut Pasteur and its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Alice Dautry, to review progress under the HHS/ASPR cooperative agreement with the institute for influenza surveillance.

Last revised: May 20, 2008