The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is coordinating with the White House and the World Health Organization to respond to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo after infectious disease experts raised concerns about the U.S. government’s approach to the crisis.
The agency has deployed two epidemiologists and a senior advisor to Congo from the agency’s headquarters in Atlanta and is working to deploy more staff in coordination with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s Ministry of Health, a CDC spokesperson said in an email to NOTUS.
They added that the CDC’s office in the country already had a staff of 30, and two employees have been deployed to the outbreak area.
The former director of the White House Office of Pandemic Preparedness and Response Policy said he was encouraged to learn that the CDC has deployed staff to respond specifically to the outbreak, but that the agency would normally do more.
Trending
“That’s on the low end of what I recall providing to previous Ebola or other viral hemorrhagic fever outbreaks,” said Paul Friedrichs, who served as OPPR’s director from 2023 until early 2025.
At least 38 people have been infected and more than 20 have died in the ongoing outbreak in Congo, the WHO said late last week — an unusually high death rate, Friedrichs said, which could indicate that either cases are going uncounted or that the strain of Ebola being transmitted is especially pathogenic.
“If indeed they’re making this great progress behind the scenes, that’s a good news story,” said Friedrichs. “It is not being reflected in the data that’s being shared thus far about the mortality rate.”
Current and former leaders of the U.S. public health system told NOTUS last week they would usually expect the United States to play a leading role in responding to such an outbreak. The Trump administration fired the OPPR’s staff and the biosecurity staff on the National Security Council that would normally lead a health crisis response effort.
The CDC spokesperson told NOTUS that the government of the Democratic Republic of Congo is directing the response to the outbreak through its emergency operations center.
“CDC is providing support” to the country’s response, the agency spokesperson wrote. They said the agency is taking “approved steps” that are “consistent with guidance and direction from HHS” to coordinate with public health partners including the WHO to “address urgent issues affecting national security.”
WHO did not respond to a request for comment on how much the U.S. has been involved with the outbreak response. The CDC spokesperson said the agency has been assisting the country’s Ministry of Public Health “in a variety of areas including epidemiological analysis, case tracking, laboratory testing, infection prevention and control, travel health, and more.”
The spokesperson said the CDC has provided personal protective equipment and is “working to provide testing kits, vaccines, and treatments.”
In past Ebola outbreaks, the U.S. has donated vaccines to affected countries. The CDC spokesperson did not say whether the U.S. has done so for this outbreak, but said vaccines and treatments are “already available and in use in DRC.”
“The U.S. government has an existing stockpile of available treatments for Ebola that we supply to affected countries if they request them. In addition, vaccines are available in a global stockpile,” they added.
The WHO said vaccine distribution has begun in Congo using the stockpile of 2,000 doses maintained by the Congolese government.
The CDC spokesperson’s email included a disclaimer about vaccines that the agency has repeatedly used when communicating about immunizations and echoes the language of an op-ed authored by Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.: “The decision to vaccinate is a personal one. People should consult with their healthcare provider to understand their options to get a vaccine and should be informed about the potential risks and benefits associated with vaccines.”
Author
