Amid the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the CDC has relieved the two top leaders of its Ebola response team of their positions.
Incident manager Satish Pillai, MD, MPH, and deputy incident manager Peggy Honein, PhD, MPH, were replaced by Henry Walke, MD, MPH, who is the director of the CDC's Office of Readiness and Response, a CDC spokesperson confirmed to MedPage Today.
"Drs. Pillai and Honein have served on the Ebola response since it was activated and are taking well-deserved time away after months of working extremely long days, 7 days a week," the spokesperson told MedPage Today in an email.
However, sources inside CDC said the leaders and at least one chief of staff were removed because of suspicions that one of them leaked information to Rolling Stone magazine for a story on 13 American citizens being detained while trying to return from Congo.
Debra Houry, MD, MPH, former chief medical officer and principal deputy director of the CDC, told MedPage Today that while leaders "do rotate on and off responses after serving for months," such leadership changes typically are "staggered so there is continuity."
