"He'll bring his lifetime of experience promoting public health to bear on priorities ranging from stopping new diseases to helping our kids grow up healthy and strong," he said in a statement."

"Vivek will also help us build on the progress we've made combating Ebola, both in our country and at its source," Obama said "Combined with the crucial support for fighting Ebola included in the bill to fund our Government next year, Vivek's confirmation makes us better positioned to save lives around the world and protect the American people here at home," he added.

A physician with the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and an instructor at Harvard Medical School, he co-founded an advocacy group in 2008 called Doctors for Obama, a national organization of 16,000 doctors and medical students. It later became Doctors for America and promoted the Affordable Care Act nicknamed Obamacare. Murthy has also founded two other organizations. Visions Worldwide focuses on rural health in India and on HIV/AIDS education in India and the US, while TrialNetworks is a software company focused on making drug development and clinical trials more efficient.

Murthy's confirmation was largely along party lines. Just one Republican voted for him, while three Democrats voted against his confirmation.