Freeman Report November 2005 - Vol. 3, No. 11

On October 31, 2005, Chinese Minister of Health Gao Qiang visited Washington. This was the first Chinese Health Minister visit to Washington in more than three years, and culminated a multi-year effort to complete a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a collaborative U.S.-China program to address emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases. With negotiations for the MOU first begun in the wake of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) crisis in 2003, this recently-concluded agreement is particularly timely given heightened global concern over a potential influenza pandemic emanating from Asia.