MOSCOW, August 3 (RIA Novosti) – Specialists from Russia’s Health Ministry have arrived in Africa to join the fight against the Ebola outbreak in the region, a spokesman for the ministry said Sunday.
“Russian specialists have been tasked with providing the research and methodology aid to their local counterparts as well as with conducting an epidemiological analysis of the situation and developing recommendations to ensure infectious security,” Oleg Salagai said.
More than 1,300 people have been infected and 729 killed in the worst Ebola outbreak in history, which has occurred in West Africa for the first time. The infection started in southern Guinea in February and spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria.
According to Jason Cone, spokesman for Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the West African Ebola outbreak is "out of control" and the affected countries are struggling to contain the disease.
Ebola first appeared in 1976 in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Symptoms begin with a fever, muscle pain and a sore throat, and then escalate to vomiting, diarrhea and internal and external bleeding. The incubation period can be up to 21 days. No vaccine currently exists.
