Transcript - Updates on CDC's Response to Ebola Outbreak in DRC and Uganda and Hantavirus Linked to M/V Hondius, 5/19/2026

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

00:00:00 Operator

Good afternoon, and thank you all for standing by. For the duration of today's call, all listeners are in a listen only mode until the question-and-answer session. At that time, credentialed members of media can press *1 to ask a question and *2 to withdraw question. Today's call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect at this time. I would now like to introduce Mr. Benjamin Haynes. Thank you. You may now begin.

00:00:26 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Thank you Courtney. And thank you all for joining us today. We're joined by Dr. Satish Pillai, who is leading CDC's Ebola response, who will provide an update on Ebola. And we'll also be joined by Dr. David Fitter, CDC's lead for the Hantavirus outbreak, who will also give an update before we take your questions. I'd now like to turn the call over to Dr. Pillai.

00:00:50 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola Response

Thanks Ben, and thank you all for joining us again. As mentioned before, this is a complex and fast-moving situation, and I want to assure you that CDC and our federal partners are working around the clock to ensure our information is accurate and that action plans are being implemented immediately. Yesterday, we reported a confirmed case of Ebola in an American, who was exposed while working in DRC. I'm glad to report today that that individual is currently in transit to Germany for care, and I want to publicly thank our German colleagues as well as the ministers of health in DRC and Uganda for their vital partnership in facilitating these transfers.

In addition, the other six individuals, who are identified as high-risk contacts, are also having movement plans that are finalizing and will be transiting to Europe as well, shortly. An additional point I'd like to make is genetic fingerprinting from this outbreak shows that it is similar to the genetic fingerprints from the 2007 and 2012 outbreaks. This means that our diagnostics we have available work to detect this strain of Ebola virus.

As this fluid situation evolves, we are continuously gathering information and will aggressively adjust our response as needed. Let me walk you through exactly what the CDC is doing right now, both here in the United States and on the ground in DRC and Uganda.

In the United States, CDC has immediately issued an order to suspend entry of certain persons from DRC, Uganda, and South Sudan, due to Ebola outbreak, who have been in those countries within the past 21 days.

We've issued two travel health notices, including elevating the DRC notice to a Level 3, recommending against all non-essential travel to the Ituri and North Kivu provinces. We just released a Health Alert Network, and we've engaged our public health and clinical partners nationwide to ensure frontline providers have the information they need to protect Americans and provide care.

To support our domestic healthcare system, CDC is providing extensive clinical guidance, training, and strict infection prevention control protocols for hospitals evaluating suspect cases, and we're coordinating directly with state, local, tribal, and territorial health departments to ensure immediate patient isolation, specimen collection, and testing, if Ebola is suspected.

And finally, leveraging our long standing, 24-hour 7 days a week laboratory response network, we are ensuring rapid vital testing is available directly at the CDC or through a distributed network of public health laboratories nationwide.

Globally, CDC is actively deploying resources through our country offices in DRC and Uganda. We are providing direct technical assistance for aggressive disease tracking and contact tracing, rapid laboratory sample collection and viral sequencing, strict infection prevention and control efforts, local border screening operations, the provision of personal protective equipment, and critical infection control supplies, risk communication and community engagement in the hardest hit areas.

And I close by noting that the risk to the United States remains low, because of the actions noted above. However, travelers to these particular areas must avoid contact with sick individuals, report any symptoms immediately, and strictly follow our travel guidance.

Our highest priority is the health of those affected and the health security of Americans, both at home and abroad. Thank you, and I'll turn the call over to Dr. Fitter.

00:05:25 David Fitter, M.D., Incident Manager for CDC's Hantavirus Response

Hi. Good afternoon, everybody. And huge thanks to Dr. Pillai. I want to provide a brief update on our ongoing response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to the MV Hondius cruise ship. Let me start by saying, there are no hantavirus cases among the returned to U.S. passengers, and the risks to the U.S. is low. CDC continues to work closely with state and local public health departments to ensure health monitoring of all U.S. residents linked to this outbreak. Our priority as always remains the health and safety of all Americans, both the passengers that have returned and also our communities. Thank you very much.

00:06:06 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Thank you Dr. Pillai and Dr. Fitter. Courtney, we are ready to take questions.

00:06:13 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 you can press *2 to withdraw your question. You may queue up at any time.

00:06:27 Operator

Our first question comes from Leigh Ann Winick from CBS News.

00:06:32 Leigh Ann Winick, CBS News

Hi. Thank you. I have one question on Ebola and one on hantavirus. Is the U.S. ramping up our Bondibugyo Ebola PCR diagnostic ability in the U.S. in anticipation of travelers coming from the World Cup or doing anything else to screen those travelers expected in about a month? And on hantavirus, could you give some more details on the end date for quarantining in Nebraska? We understand at least one patient would like to leave now. What advice and what measures are being taken there? Thank you.

00:07:07 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

Thank you for the question and you'll see in the Health Alert Network that we are releasing today, the information about public health capacity. There is capacity for detection of the Bondibugyo strain of Ebola virus in the laboratory response network as well as at CDC and... David?

00:07:28 David Fitter, M.D., Incident Manager for CDC's hantavirus response

Yes. Thank you. With regards to those that are in Nebraska, a decision was made across the leadership in the U.S. government to have the passengers stay in Nebraska until May 31, which marks the 21st day of their monitoring period.

00:07:47 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Next question, please.

00:07:51 Operator

Our next question comes from Amy Maxmen from KFF Health News.

00:07:57 Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News

Hi. Thanks a lot for this briefing. I'm wondering what groups...I know that like you know U.S. officials at like US-AID and CDC can't be on the ground in Ituri or North Kivu, due to security concerns, in terms of like actually working in ETUs and doing work on the ground. So, I'm wondering what groups you're working through, who will do that work like that you're supporting?

00:08:21 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

OK. So, the U.S. government, CDC inclusive, has multiple implementing partners that help with our epidemiology work, which is contact tracing, alert notifications, data monitoring, as well as laboratory partners, border health specialists. These are partners that are groups that we've worked with in DRC and in Uganda for a long period of time. Similarly, with for the non-governmental organizations, our partners throughout CDC and the inter-agency, continue to dialogue and ensure that we're sharing information about what we know and determining what needs they may have to better understand the outbreak and ensure the health and wellbeing of their staff.

00:09:19 Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News

Could you please name the groups?

00:09:23 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

Yeah, we can follow up. There's an extensive list of groups.

00:09:30 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

The next question please.

00:09:30 Amy Maxmen, KFF Health News

Thank you. I appreciate that.

00:09:35 Operator

Our next question comes from Sophia Beausoleil from NBC 5 Dallas Fort Worth.

00:09:42 Sophia Beausoleil, KXAS-TV Dallas/Fort Worth

Hi. Good afternoon. Thank you so much for doing this. I was curious in regards to the World Cup and the team from the Congo, and since they will be playing in Houston, what are the processes and, I guess, the monitoring steps that are taking place for the team and the personnel as they get ready to make their way here for the World Cup?

00:10:04 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola Response

Thank you very much for the question. We're actively working with FIFA to ensure that there is safe traveling, safe passage and ensuring that travelers and the American public remain safe throughout.

00:10:24 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Next question please, Courtney.

00:10:28 Operator

Our next question comes from Youri Benadjaoud from ABC News.

00:10:34 Youri Benadjaoud, ABC News

Hi, guys. Thank you for taking this call. On the American doctor that was sent to Germany, are there any plans for further travel to the United States for him to get treatment here at home, or is there a plan to just have them continue to get treatment in Germany?

00:10:52 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

At present, the key issue here is ensuring the treatment is initiated rapidly and appropriately, and the initial location being Germany given the proximity and the access to the highest levels of care.

00:11:10 Youri Benadjaoud, ABC News

And just to quickly follow up, if I could: Are the remaining six passengers also going to be quarantining in Germany and if so, how long?

00:11:19 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

The individuals are traveling to Europe, and including in Germany, and we will be and they will be in quarantine during their monitoring period.

00:11:32 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Next question please, Courtney.

00:11:36 Operator

Our next question comes from Mike Erman from Reuters.

00:11:41 Mike Erman, Reuters

Hi. Thanks. Just wondering if you can quantify how many people CDC has deployed overseas for Ebola and also how many people in the U.S. are working on this. And also, what is the State Department 's role in the in the response?

00:12:06 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

I'd like to take a step back here and just remind everyone that CDC has, as well as the U.S. government, have been supporting DRC and Uganda for decades. We have responded to viral hemorrhagic fevers repeatedly with our ministry partners, interagency partners, and international partners. We have a long-standing presence with a large country office in Uganda with nearly 100 staff and in DRC with nearly 30 staff members. So, there is a team of individuals that have been long-standing presences in these countries and have long-standing partnerships. In addition to that, at headquarters, we have dozens, actually probably hundreds of people at this point, that have been onboarded into our emergency response which stood up officially two days ago. And, we have staff that are continuing to ramp up and deploy to the affected countries. In fact, we have an individual that will be wheels up tomorrow morning to go to DRC, and we will continue to operate using the playbook that we have used time and time again to coordinate and respond appropriately.

00:13:25 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Next question please.

00:13:28 Operator

Our next question comes from Deidre McPhillips from CNN.

00:13:33 Deidre McPhillips, CNN

Hi. Thanks so much for doing this. Two questions about travel into the U.S.: I'm wondering why there are restrictions on non-U.S. passport holders, but for people with U.S. passports, are there any restrictions from them coming into the U.S. from places that have been affected by Ebola? And also, we're hearing that some screening is happening at certain U.S. airports. Can you expand a little bit on which airports are doing screening, and how is this being done? Thank you.

00:14:06 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response So, I want to go back to the fact that we are using the tools that we have currently to respond effectively based on the information that we have presently. This is an evolving situation, and we have taken a conservative approach initially as we learn more about an outbreak in a highly volatile part of the world.

And this will be continued to be revisited. And, in terms of the operationalization, we will continue to work with our partners, our state and local partners, to discuss how the next steps will unfold.

00:14:57 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Next question, please.

00:15:00 Operator

Our next question comes from Erika Edwards from NBC News.

00:15:05 Erika Edwards, NBC News

Hey. Thanks so much for doing this. I wanted to follow up on the question about staffing in Uganda and DRC. Can I confirm that the nearly 100 staff in Uganda and the nearly 30 in DRC: those are both U.S. assignees and local employees? And then, did I hear correctly that you have one person going tomorrow? Is...do you anticipate sending more people? And then I have a question about hantavirus but wanted to start there, please.

00:15:33 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

Yeah, our U.S. direct hires and LE staff, that is it is an inclusive of both groups. We consider our staff our staff. We have one person that is...has their travel papers and are leaving but that is the first of many additional people.

00:15:55 Erika Edwards, NBC News

OK. Thank you. And for hantavirus, if I could, I wanted to ask about the passengers in quarantine. You had indicated last week that you'd encourage the passengers to stay in quarantine in Nebraska, stopped short of saying that you keep them there; local health officials have said people would have the option of quarantining at home. And I'm just curious: Why did that decision change? Why can't those two passengers leave? Thank you.

00:16:21 David Fitter, M.D., Incident Manager for CDC's hantavirus response

Certainly with regards to the Nebraska quarantine unit and those that are there, we are constantly regarding the situation and evaluating where things are. And as I said a little bit earlier, a decision was made across leadership in the United States government to have passengers stay in Nebraska until May 31st. We are continuing to coordinate very closely with all states that are impacted by this, as their residents are impacted by this.

00:16:53 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Courtney, we have time for two more questions.

00:16:57 Operator

Our next question comes from Jacey Fortin from the New York Times.

00:17:03 Jacey Fortin, The New York Times

Thank you. I want to make sure that I'm clear on the answer to Youri 's question about where the Americans went. You said that six Americans who were exposed to people who went to Europe. Is it right that they went to different countries, including Germany? And the second question on Hantavirus, which is that, before we learned that the total number of people being both quarantined and under monitoring in their home states was 41. Is that number still correct or have there been more exposure since more people under monitoring? Thank you.

00:17:39 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

We have six individuals that will be, well 7 individuals, that will be in Germany. We are working with an additional host country for the 7th individual, and that is the Czech Republic.

00:18:00 David Fitter, M.D., Incident Manager for CDC's hantavirus response

With regard to some of the monitoring, with regards to high-risk monitoring, it has actually gone down. This goes to, when we initially started the monitoring, we had the information available to us. CDC has been working extraordinarily hard with regards to our epidemiologic investigations to get further information, and we were able to reclassify, and we decreased the number of high-risk contact exposures . Over.

00:18:27 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

And our last question please.

00:18:30 Operator

Our last question comes from Giselle Grayson from NPR.

00:18:36 Gisele Grayson, NPR

Hi there. Can you tell me a little bit more about the supply chain? You mentioned you're sending all kinds of equipment, tracking, PPE, etc. Can you say what you've sent, when you expect for equipment to get there, and where is it going?

00:18:52 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

This isn't an inclusive list of what the requests are through our implementing partners. So, laboratory supplies, implementing partners can use the resources that we've provided to ensure that the health department, ministries of health, have the resources they need to respond effectively.

00:19:16 Gisele Grayson, NPR

So, you mean there these are the requests that are coming in and nothing has gone out yet or what stage is it in?

00:19:24 CAPT Satish K. Pillai, M.D., M.P.H., Incident Manager for CDC's Ebola response

So, keep in mind, the CDC isn't shipping supplies. There are systems in place for implementing partners to procure and identify the resources that are being requested to appropriately respond to the needs of the ministry.

00:19:45 Benjamin Haynes, CDC Moderator

Thank you, Dr. Pillai and Dr. Fitter. And thank you all for joining us today. A transcript and audio file will be posted to the CDC media site later today. And, this will conclude our call.

00:19:58 Operator

That concludes today's conference thank you for participating you may disconnect at this time.