FACT SHEET: Update on the Ebola Response

Since the diagnosis of the first Ebola patient in the United States, we have achieved tremendous progress across all elements of the Administration’s whole-of-government response. In an update provided to President Obama today, White House Ebola Response Coordinator Ron Klain reported that America is far more prepared to cope with Ebola domestically, and much farther along in our efforts to squelch the virus at the source than we were just two months ago, thanks to the work of more than a dozen federal agencies involved in the Ebola response.

Specifically, the progress we have achieved domestically in the past two months includes:

• Expanded the network of hospitals prepared to deal with Ebola patients, increasing our capacity from 8 hospital beds at just three facilities to 53 beds at 35 designated Treatment Centers nationwide;
• Grown our Ebola testing capacity from 13 labs in 13 states as of August to 42 labs in 36 states;
• Required travelers from one of the four Ebola-affected countries to travel via one of five U.S. airports, where an enhanced screening system has been deployed to identify any potential Ebola cases;
• Put in place national active monitoring guidance for public health officials to maintain daily contact with passengers arriving from an affected country—with even more rigorous monitoring and controls on travelers in higher risk groups;
• Completed phase 1 clinical trials of the first vaccine to treat Ebola, clearing the way for large-scale clinical trials in West Africa in the weeks ahead.

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