MOSCOW, September 18 (RIA Novosti) - Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's federal public health agency, has prepared cargo with personal protective equipment for doctors and volunteers fighting the Ebola virus in Guinea, according to the agency's Thursday statement.
"Rospotrebnadzor . . . is ready to send a cargo to Guinea with personal protective equipment for health care workers and volunteers involved in the battle against the Ebola hemorrhagic fever," the statement, published on Rospotrebnadzor's website, says.
A team of Russian epidemiologists, virologists and bacteriologists is still stationed in Guinea, Rospotrebnadzor informed.
"Currently, a Rospotrebnadzor mobile laboratory is up and running in Donka Hospital in the Guinean capital, Conakry, where Ebola patients are hospitalized. In order to coordinate efforts [against Ebola], cooperation has been established with the Government and Ministry of Health and Public hygiene of Guinea, representatives of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Doctors Without Borders organization," the Russian health watchdog wrote.
More than 2,450 people have died in the Ebola outbreak. The epidemic began in southern Guinea in December 2013 and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal.
A separate outbreak, unrelated to that in West Africa, is taking place in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The Ebola virus is transmitted through direct contact with the blood, body fluids or tissue of infected animals or people. Its mortality rate currently stands at 53 percent. There is no officially approved medication for the disease, and experts claim prevention is the only cure. Several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan are currently working on vaccines.
