The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Sunday that it is mobilizing an “international response” following an Ebola disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda to coordinate the withdrawal of “a small number of Americans who are directly affected by this outbreak.”
The CDC said in a statement that “the risk to the American public remains low” and it “has systems in place to detect and respond rapidly to potential public health threats.”
The affected Americans in Congo are “believed to have had exposure to suspected cases in the country’s latest Ebola outbreak, with several deemed to have had high-risk exposures,” STAT News reported. At least one person “may have developed symptoms.”
CDC SAYS CURRENTLY NO CASES OF HANTAVIRUS
The World Health Organization declared the outbreak a public health emergency of international concern on Saturday.
The CDC is sending personnel to the Congo early this week, according to the agency’s Ebola response incident manager Satish K. Pillai, as reported by the Washington Post.