UPDATE with testimony to Congress.

Obama says Ebola-fighting goal is to prevent any new cases

(Scroll down for earlier story and link to Congressional testimony by administration officials)

ASSOCIATED PRESS       by Jim Kuhnhenn                                              APRIL 15.                                    

WASHINGTON — Citing significant gains in fighting the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, President Obama declared Wednesday that the international goal now is to prevent any new cases of the deadly virus in the afflicted region....

President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden, back right, meets with, from left, Sierra Leone President Ernest Bai Koroma, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, and Guinean President Alpha Condé, in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, April 15, 2015, to discuss progress made in the international Ebola response. (Manuel Balce Ceneta/Associated Press)

On Capitol Hill, top government health officials echoed the president’s message, saying that while recent efforts fighting Ebola have been encouraging, the threat is far from over,.

In testimony before a House panel (The House Appropriations Committee) , Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Thomas Frieden said the epidemic in Liberia is under control, and that a similar reduction in cases has been seen in Sierra Leone. Guinea has made progress, too, but still faces challenges, said Frieden.

National Institutes of Health infectious diseases chief Dr. Anthony Fauci said work being done on a vaccine is also showing promise. So far, more than 1,100 people in Liberia have been enrolled in the clinical trial.

“It is safe and it is inducing a response that one would predict would be protective, although obviously you need to have field proof of that,” Fauci told lawmakers on a health appropriations subcommittee.

See complete story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-says-ebola-fighting-goal-is-to-prevent-any-new-cases/2015/04/15/09f4f9fe-e385-11e4-ae0f-f8c46aa8c3a4_story.html

Link to House Appropriations Committee testimony.

http://appropriations.house.gov/calendar/eventsingle.aspx?EventID=394121

 See earlier story.

THE HILL by Sarah Ferris                                                                                   April 15, 2015

President Obama on Wednesday warned that the world cannot be “complacent” in the fight against Ebola even as the number of new cases drops to zero in parts of West AFrica.

“We have to be vigilant, and the international community has to remain fully engaged in a partnership with these three countries until there are no cases of Ebola,” Obama said after a meeting with ...Vice President Biden, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Guinean President Alpha Condé, and Sierra Leonean President Ernest Bai Koroma.

The three presidents are in D.C. to meet with officials from the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank as they seek relief to start rebuilding their health systems and economies, Obama said.

Read complete story.

http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/238924-obama-world-must-remain-fully-engaged-against-ebola