Update on Ebola Outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, 5/29/2026

Please Note: This transcript is not edited and may contain errors.

00:22:28 Operator All listeners are in listen only mode until the question-and-answer session; at that time, credentialed members of the media press to press *1 to ask a question or *2 to withdraw question. Today's call is being recorded if you have any objections you may disconnect at this time you would now introduce Mr. Benjamin Haynes; thank you sir, you may begin.

00:22:55 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator Thank you Shirley and thank you all for joining us today. I'm joined by Dr. Satish Pillai who is leading CDC's Ebola response; he will provide a brief update before taking your questions. Dr. Pillai?

00:23:07 CAPT Satish K. Pillai [suh-TEESH puh-LYE], M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response Thank you Ben and thank you all for joining us. This continues to be a rapidly evolving Ebola outbreak, and CDC is working aggressively with federal and international partners to support the response efforts. While this is a serious outbreak that requires sustained international action, the risk to the United States remains low. As with many Ebola outbreaks, the number of reported cases may not fully reflect the extent of transmission, and we do expect the response will require sustained international coordination.

CDC's priorities are straightforward: helping stop transmission at its source, supporting affected countries and neighboring nations, and ensuring readiness here in the United States. To that end, key activities in, in support of CDC's domestic readiness goals include implementing enhanced travel screening, public health measures to prevent Ebola disease from entering the United States, including exit screening and, and entry restrictions. And travel screening has now been set up at four US airports. CDC's activities in support of the international outbreak response goals are focused on supporting the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, CDC country offices and the respective ministries of health as they respond to the outbreak. And finally, CDC continues to work across the US government and with other critical partners to effectively respond to and control the outbreak in order to ensure an effective public health response. The most effective way to protect Americans is to stop outbreaks as quickly as possible where they occur; that's why CDC's response focuses both on supporting affected countries and maintaining readiness here at home.

CDC's long-standing partnerships in the region have enabled us to engage quickly when the outbreak was identified. That collaboration, uh, helped us accelerate our response efforts in the affected countries while continuing to inform preparedness activities back here. Our teams in DRC and Uganda are providing assistance across a range of areas from epidemiology to laboratory work to operational support to ensure the governments of DRC and Uganda have what they need to effectively contain and control their outbreaks, and we continue to mobilize resources here from headquarters.

To that end, more than 230 CDC staff are currently supporting our response including staff deployed to the field. Earlier this week, the CDC's acting director, Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, reached out to CDC staff seeking additional qualified personnel to support response activities including screening at airports. This is consistent with how CDC has always responded to public health emergencies. I want to be clear we have always relied on qualified staff from across the agency to support response efforts. When additional capacity is needed, staff will support these efforts, these so as far as the CDC public health mission and established emergency response operation. This is a longstanding and well-established practice that has been used during Ebola, COVID-19, monkeypox, and many other responses.

Finally, let me reiterate at this time the risk for the United States remains low; however, outbreaks like this remind us that infectious diseases don't respect borders, and CDC will continue working with partners to stop transmission at its source, protect affected communities, and help ensure the United States remains prepared.

00:27:30 Mr. Haynes Thank you, sir. Shirley, we are ready to take questions.

00:27:35 Operator Thank you; if you are a credentialed member of the media and you would like to ask a question during the call please press *1 on your touch tone phone; press *2 to withdraw your question. You may hang up at any time. The first question comes from Youri Benadjaoud with ABC News; you may ask your question.

00:28:04 Youri Benadjaoud, ABC News Hi there, thanks for holding this call again. I'm, are you concerned that this new policy to bring Americans into the Kenyan quarantine facilities going to actually deter people from reporting that they were exposed to people, given the fact that they won't be able to go home? And in that same manner, are you concerned that there's also going to limit the amount of American doctors that volunteer to go in the, in the outbreak, over, abroad?

00:28:27 Dr. Pillai Thanks for that question, Youri. CDC supports all our interagency partners. I would refer you to the Department of State which is the lead federal agency for the those efforts.

00:28:46 Mr. Haynes Next question, please.

00:28:50 Operator Thank you for that; this question comes from Sabrina Cupit and that's with WSB Radio, Atlanta. You may ask your question.

00:28:59 Sabrina Cupit, WSB Radio Thank you again for doing the call. I wanted to follow up on the Kenya angle of this story, that Kenyan court this morning temporarily blocking us from opening the quarantine center there. Where would the Americans that would have gone there, where will they go now instead? And then I also wanted to ask, if it's OK, about the screeners and the volunteers, um, how many stepped up, how quickly did they respond; what kind of response did you get when you sent out the request for those? Thank you.

00:29:31 Dr. Pillai Again, I would refer you to the Department of State as the lead agency for questions pertaining to Kenya. Regarding the volunteers, these are individuals that have responded from across CDC to Commission Corps officers, we have 54 staff who are at airport security screening and regulatory health stations work currently; we are staffed appropriately for the four locations including the one that was started today, and we've met the, the needs with the staff that have been identified, and I will continue to [unintelligible] and I will say interest of most CDC staff to join the response is very high; people want to help.

00:30:33 Mr. Haynes Thank you; next question, please.

00:30:35 Operator This question comes from Michael Errman with Reuters; your line is opening up to your question.

00:30:42 Michael Errman, Reuters Thanks. Just one quick follow up to what you just said: Can you quantify at all what's the CDC staff responses in terms of, you know, helping, helping out at those four locations? How many people uh do you have there, and, and how many people, uh, have volunteered and wondering also, given that uh the hantavirus quarantines are scheduled to end this weekend, does that give, uh, you know, is that opening up any of those facilities for for Ebola?

00:31:24 Dr. Pillai So, I'm just going back to the, the prior response: We had 54 staff including Commission Corps for doing screening and regular airport screening. To contextualize this, I've got over 236 staff on this response right now. I've got staff domestically and internationally and, just to reiterate, staff are eager to join this response because they see CDC's public health in the past, happy in this work, and we have volunteers from across the agencies have reached out. I would refer questions regarding a hantavirus to the colleagues that are running that response, and we'll follow up, you know.

00:32:17 Mr. Haynes Next question please.

00:32:20 Operator Thank you; our next question comes from Brenda Goodman with CNN; your line is open; you may ask your question.

00:32:27 Brenda Goodman, CNN Thank you, Dr. Pillai. I have a question about you know you you said that the agency has asked for volunteers; has there been any discussion of of possible deployment of Public Health Service Commission Corps and that would be a required deployment? And I'm wondering if you can give any reassurance to those folks who might be afraid to deploy? If they can't come back to the United States after they've been exposed to Ebola trying to treat patients, that seems that seems like a departure from what our government has done for people in the similar situations before; thank you.

00:32:47 Dr. Pillai I looked, uh, referring questions regarding the Commission Corps to the our sister agencies and the office of the Secretary of Health and would again note that he has staff ranging from our civilian FTEs to Commission Corps officers that are currently supporting in deployment roles across various activities for the response.

00:33:40 Mr. Haynes Next question, please.

00:33:42 Operator For this question, Sophie Gardner with Politico, your line is open; you may ask your question.

00:33:49 Sophie Gardner, Politico Hi; thank you so much for taking my question. I just wanted to clarify because I don't think we've got clear answer on this yet: Are Americans who are exposed to Ebola, will, will they be prevented from reentering the United States, So, if you have someone who's exposed to Ebola, yeah I would really rather be monitored at a facility in the United States that they be prevented from returning? Thank you.

00:34:18 Dr. Pillai Regarding movement and monitoring, I would refer questions to the Department of State, who's the lead federal agency for those discussions.

00:34:30 Mr. Haynes Next question.

00:34:32 Operator This question comes from Jessica Karins with Inside Health Policy; your line is open; you may ask your question.

00:34:39 Jessica Karins, Inside Health Policy Hi thanks for taking my question um wondering if we can share how many CDC staff are currently being deployed to the region and what kind of training they're receiving before deployment.

00:34:56 Dr. Pillai CDC has the ongoing set of deployments to the region we've already staffed, and I believe we'll have to get to the actual numbers. It changes on a day-to-day basis but teams have deployed our, in country, they complement the existing footprint of staff which include 24 staff in the DRC country office, which is a mix of locally employed and full-time employees, staff. And I believe it's nearly 100 staff in the Uganda country office and those have been supplemented by our deployment staff, and again we'll get you those numbers regarding training. There's always training, including for how to deploy, how to deploy safely, there's Ebola 101, the course that the staff received prior to this point. Thank you.

00:35:54 Mr. Haynes We have time for two more questions.

00:35:56 Operator Thank you and have questions for Sabrina Siddiqui with Wall Street Journal your line is open and answer your questions.

00:36:05 Sabrina Siddiqui, The Wall Street Journal Thank you for doing this, and I know you've been deferring more of these diplomatic questions around Kenya to the State Department so I want to ask you more from a medical vantage point, a two-part question: One is, can you explain just from a medical perspective if American patients or people who Americans how to develop it on the past have been brought back to the US to the US for treatment: Is there a reason why that this time is any different from a medical standpoint? And #2, there's been a lot of pushback from medical groups in Kenya about potential exposure, exposure to their population if this facility does going through, so are you not, is there a medical risk to the Kenyan population that is associated with setting up a quarantine facility there given that there are no known or suspected cases in Kenya at this moment?

00:37:01 Dr. Pillai Thank you. I, I think it's important to make sure that we're clear what [unintelligible] is we provide risk assessment guidance to our area agency colleagues and exposure does not translate to actual inspection. I think that's an important distinction and the importance of being able to monitor individuals and then identify appropriate locations where they need they need may need additional care should they develop symptoms, there is a an additional set of conversations but I, I do want to and make sure that there's a distinction between being present in a location that has an Ebola outbreak, being present in a location and having potential exposure would be assessment of that exposure which is where CDC can provide input and then subsequent decisions the appropriate transportation out. To your point, it is a, a complex set of discussions and one that requires significant amount of coordination thank you.

00:38:13 Mr. Haynes Our last question please.

00:38:16 Operator So, another question comes from Pien Huang with NPR; your line is open.

00:38:32 Pien Huang, National Public Radio In the after question I thank you for doing this and I think you said you're going through like it's [unintelligible] because I'm wondering if you could help clarify what the new thing is, someone who is suspected to be exposed to people and I think in the language the White House yesterday, and he said that anyone who was suspected to be exposed would be, you know ,required to quarantine potentially in Kenya, and so I'm wondering you know how could CDC would sort of define "suspected exposed" people: Is that anyone who treats any patients for instance?

00:38:57 Dr. Pillai Rather than enumerating the multiple different types of ways to evaluate it in individual, I would refer you to our CDC clinical web pages which does provide a detailed description on how individuals may be and again as a overarching point I think it is important to keep in mind that casual exposures and and and do not lend itself to sort of risk and that the risk to the American people the main income very low. Thank you very much

00:39:43 Mr. Haynes Thank you, Dr. Pillai. Thank you all for joining us; this will conclude our briefing transcript and audio file will be posted to the CDC media site later today; thank you.