MOSCOW, August 21 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian Emergency Situations Ministry’s flight with an anti-epidemic team and a mobile laboratory left Moscow Region for Guinea on Thursday evening, a representative from the team said.
“The plane took off from the Ramenskoye Airport at 22:14 Moscow time [18:15 GMT],” the source said.
The team includes epidemiologists, virologists and bacteriologists from the Russian federal public health control service Rospotrebnadzor, according to the source.
Earlier in the day, Valentin Safronov, the head of the anti-epidemic team, said that the Russian specialists will stay in Guinea for a maximum of five months overall.
It was reported that the Russian medics will organize a Ebola virus research laboratory in Guinea and take part in the development of a new treatment for the deadly virus.
The number of deaths from the Ebola virus disease in the West African countries of Liberia, Nigeria, Guinea and Sierra Leone has spiked to 1,350, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported Wednesday.
Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a deadly disease transmitted through direct contact with the blood or bodily fluids of the infected. There is no licensed treatment or vaccine for the Ebola virus yet, which has a case fatality rate of up to 90 percent.
Last week, WHO concluded that it is ethical to use experimental drugs to treat patients infected with the Ebola virus.
