HHS Secretary Alex Azar will travel to the Democratic Republic of Congo's Ebola outbreak zone with several other White House officials, reports STAT.
Mr. Azar announced the trip Sept. 10. The following officials will join him in visiting northeastern Congo, Uganda and Rwanda:
- Anthony Fauci, MD, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases
- Robert Redfield, MD, director of the CDC
- Tim Ziemer, senior deputy assistant administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development and staff of the National Security Council
The leaders will meet with health officials in each country and Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, PhD, director-general of the World Health Organization, to discuss the United States' support of outbreak response efforts, among other topics. In August 2018, the U.S. Department of State withdrew its Ebola experts from Congo due to security issues.
As of Sept. 8, the WHO reported 3,081 confirmed and probable cases linked to the outbreak.