YAROSLAVL, March 27. /TASS/. Tests of Russian anti-Ebola vaccine proceed successfully but are not yet over, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said on Friday.
"Tests are not yet completed but the trials are proceeding successfully, and the entire process is successful," she told journalists.
She said trials on primates were not yet completed.
She said a team of Russian experts, who had visited Ebola-stricken countries in Western Africa, were optimistic about vaccine’s prospects. "They absolutely positive that we will be the first to attain results," she said.
Ebola fever broke out in West Africa in December 2013. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the Ebola virus had killed more than 10,300 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia and about 15,000 were infected.
The World Health Organization describes Ebola virus disease (formerly known as Ebola haemorrhagic fever) as "a severe, often fatal illness, with a case fatality rate of up to 90%." Symptoms include sudden onset of fever, intense weakness, muscle pain, headache and sore throat. This is followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, rash, impaired kidney and liver function, and in some cases, both internal and external bleeding. The infection is transmitted by direct contact with the blood, body fluids and tissues of infected animals or people. People are infectious as long as their blood and secretions contain the virus. The incubation period is 2 to 21 days. There is no known cure or vaccine for the disease. The only treatment offered is "supportive intensive care."