Ralph Abraham, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s principal deputy director, has stepped down, the agency said on Monday, announcing the exit of a top official for the second time in February.

The agency known as the CDC – which is temporarily being run by Dr Jay Bhattacharya – said the departure was effective immediately and attributed it to unforeseen family obligations. It did not comment on who would replace Abraham.

Abraham’s exit follows that of Jim O’Neill on 13 February. O’Neill was acting CDC director since August in addition to him functioning as deputy secretary of the federal Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

Abraham was second in command at CDC and started there on 5 January. He was most recently surgeon general of the state of Louisiana, where he led a move to stop promotion of mass vaccination and criticized the Covid-19 shots.

The CDC has been hit by budget cuts, staff losses and a series of controversies under HHS secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a longtime vaccine skeptic who fired the director he had appointed, Susan Monarez.

Monarez was removed in August after she resisted changes to vaccine policy advanced by Kennedy that she believed contradicted scientific evidence.

Her departure triggered resignations from four senior officials, who cited anti-vaccine policies and misinformation pushed by Kennedy.

On Wednesday, Bhattacharya – also the director of the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) – stepped in as acting director of the CDC. Trump administration sources have said the moves are part of positioning ahead of November’s midterm elections.

A US vaccine advisory committee meeting scheduled by the CDC for later in February will not be held, with no new dates announced, Reuters recently reported.