MOSCOW, 5 February (BelTA – TASS) – Russia's medicine based on Ebola vaccine will be used in Guinea from this autumn, Russia's Healthcare Minister Veronika Skvortsova said on Friday.
"In late autumn, we shall begin using the medicine," she said. "Our medicines have been registered, which means they may be used already."
She said the effectiveness of the Russian medicines had been checked very thoroughly "at various stages of laboratory tests, on small animals, monkeys." Effective clinical tests have been done, too. "We do not doubt our medicine is effective," she said.
In mid-January, the minister said Russia had received a request from the Pasteur Institute in Guinea for use of the Ebola vaccine, made in Russia.
The World Health Organization (WHO) data puts the death toll from Ebola's West Africa outbreak at 11,291 and the number of infected cases at 28,147.
These cases were reported mostly from Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. The maximum number of Ebola-related deaths and cases was registered in Liberia, at nearly 4,800 fatalities and more than 11,000 cases of infection. UNICEF reported in December, the outbreak of the deadly virus left parentless 22,000 children.
WHO says Ebola virus disease is "a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%".
