MOSCOW, October 30 (RIA Novosti) — The possibility of Russian medical personnel contracting the Ebola virus in West Africa is out of the question, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Thursday.
"Our medical experts are highly-trained professionals who are well-prepared to tackle complicated epidemiological situations," Golodets told RIA Novosti.
"They have all necessary equipment, materials, and special protective means. This possibility [of Ebola infection] is out of the question," she said.
A team of Russian epidemiologists, virologists and bacteriologists from Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor is currently stationed in Guinea. Earlier in October, Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova stated that Russia is considering sending more teams of healthcare workers to West Africa.
The current Ebola epidemic started in southern Guinea in February and later spread to other West African countries. According to the latest WHO estimates, 4,922 people have lost their lives in the outbreak and a total of 13,703 confirmed, probable, and suspected cases of Ebola infection have been registered.
Several foreign health workers have contracted Ebola while assisting in the international effort to curb the spread of the deadly virus in West Africa. A US doctor is currently under treatment in New York, having contracted Ebola in Guinea, while a Norwegian doctor who was infected with the virus in Sierra Leone was recently released from an Oslo hospital.
