MOSCOW, October 9 (RIA Novosti) - Preventive measures taken in Russia will ensure absolute protection from Ebola entering the country, the Russian Health Ministry told RIA Novosti Thursday.
"Russia has now taken all the necessary precautions in order to reduce the likelihood of an Ebola outbreak," the ministry's spokesman Oleg Salagay said.
"Even when there is a separate case, as in the United States and Spain, the effective work of specialized sanitation and disease control teams, with extensive experience fighting infectious diseases, including highly dangerous ones, would eliminate the possibility of it spreading," the spokesman said.
Earlier, the head of Russia's public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, said that a serious outbreak of Ebola virus is unlikely in Russia, although sporadic infections among Russians who have traveled abroad are possible. Two of the largest airports in Russia, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo said they were ready to receive infected passengers.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister for Social Affairs Olga Golodets said in early September that Russian specialists had been taking positive steps toward developing an Ebola vaccine, which is currently being tested.
The Ebola epidemic currently taking place in West Africa broke out in southern Guinea in February, and later spread across Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. The Ebola outbreak has so far killed 3,857 people, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
