USA: CDC director resigns effective January 20 - CNN.com

[Giuseppe]

[I wonder whether this change at the top of US CDC will have some fall-out in pandemic preparedness activities. IOH.]

CDC director resigns effective January 20 - CNN.com

CDC director resigns effective January 20

(CNN) --

Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, will leave her post by noon on January 20, the day President-elect Barack Obama is to be sworn in to office.


Dr. Julie Gerberding, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has resigned effective January 20.

In an e-mail to the staff at the Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the CDC, outgoing HHS Secretary Michael Leavitt asked Gerberding and several other senior officials from his team to submit their letters of resignation.

"She did so, and it was accepted, and it is effective January 20," CDC spokeswoman Karen Hunter said.

Leavitt explained his move this way: "The next phase of Transition involves the departure of our team on January 20, and the arrival of President-elect Obama's team later that day," his e-mail said. "In order to create a clear path for leadership transition, I am attaching a list of senior leaders who will become the acting heads of their respective agencies and offices (or in some cases, remain as heads of their respective agencies and offices) until the new administration appoints individuals to various leadership positions."

In addition to the change at CDC, Assistant HHS Secretary Charlie Johnson will serve as acting secretary, Leavitt said.

CDC's Chief Operating Officer William H. Gimson III will take over as interim director at the agency until the next HHS secretary appoints a new one, the e-mail added.

Gimson and Gerberding were traveling and unavailable for comment.
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<cite cite="http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/01/09/cdc.director.gerberding/index.html?eref=rss_topstories">CDC director resigns effective January 20 - CNN.com</cite>

[Shiloh]

Re: USA: CDC director resigns effective January 20 - CNN.com

Source: http://ohsonline.com/articles/2009/0...in-charge.aspx

CDC Emergency Preparedness Director Now in Charge
* Jan 26, 2009

Dr. Richard Besser, 49, director of CDC's Coordinating Office for Terrorism Preparedness and Emergency Response, has been tapped to serve as acting director of the agency. Besser is a pediatrician who has worked in CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service and has experience in tracking foodborne diseases and battling infectious diseases, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Dr. Julie Gerberding resigned effective Jan. 20, the day President Barack Obama was inaugurated, after six years at the helm of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. According to CDC, Besser has served as the epidemiology section chief in the Respiratory Diseases Branch, acting chief of the Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch in the National Center for Infectious Disease, and as the medical director of Get Smart: Know When Antibiotics Work, CDC′s national campaign to promote appropriate antibiotic use in the community.

The agency says Besser received his B.A. in economics from Williams College and his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania. He completed a residency and a chief residency in pediatrics at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Md.