Ron Klain, Ebola czar, says more cases in U.S. to come

In a rare public appearance, President Obama’s Ebola czar said Thursday there will be more cases of the virus in the U.S. “occasionally.”

“We will see other cases of Ebola in the United States, as the president has said, occasionally and sporadically,” Ron Klain told representatives of nonprofit and faith-based groups at the White House. But he called the successful treatment last week of a New York doctor who contracted the disease a “milestone.”

“It’s a milestone because it shows that our health care system can successfully identify isolate and treat an Ebola patient and return him home and healthy,” Mr. Klain said.

The president tapped Mr. Klain in October after a sometimes confused and disorganized federal response to the disease from various agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control. The White House has said his role will be largely behind the scenes.

In West Africa where the outbreak is still rampaging, Mr. Klain said there is much more work to be done.

“We are not at the beginning of the end or even the end of the beginning, but we are at the throes of this effort in West Africa with interventions that can work,” he said.

Vice President Joseph R. Biden urged the groups to lobby Congress for more funding to fight the disease in Africa and in the U.S., saying the Republicans’ gains in the midterm election have created a more difficult environment for the administration’s $6.2 billion emergency funding request.

“I’ll be very blunt,” Mr. Biden said. “We need you and your constituents to help carry the word. [It] carries a lot more weight in this environment, this political environment we find ourselves in, than anything I can say, the president can say, Speaker Boehner can say. It is the currency that is most negotiable.”