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‘The best in the world’: Putin lauds effectiveness of Russia’s revolutionary Ebola vaccine

The latest Ebola epidemics in West Africa in 2014-2016 took the lives of more than 11,300 people

© Alexandr Ryumin/TASS

SOCHI, October 23. /TASS/. President Vladimir Putin has said that he considered Russia’s groundbreaking Ebola-fighting vaccine to be the best in the world.

Speaking at the plenary session of the Russia-Africa Economic Forum, he noted that Moscow had established a successful alliance in fighting infectious diseases throughout Africa. He recalled, in particular, that the Russian Scientific Center for Epidemiology and Prevention of Infectious Diseases that opened in 2017 was operating in Guinea.

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"Indeed, there’s been excellent work, truly very effective," Putin said. "Our country was one of the first to respond to the Ebola epidemic by earmarking more than $60 mln to fight it. It is noteworthy that the vaccine has proved to be very effective, in my personal opinion, the best in the world."

The World Health Organization describes the Ebola virus disease (EVD, formerly known as Ebola hemorrhagic fever) as "a severe, often fatal illness in humans. EVD outbreaks have a case fatality rate of up to 90%."

The virus was first recorded in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo) in 1976, with outbreaks reported in Sudan, Gabon, the Republic of the Congo, Angola and Cote d’Ivoire. The latest Ebola epidemics in West Africa in 2014-2016 took the lives of more than 11,300 people, with more than 28,600 contracting the disease. The most lethal outcomes were reported in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia.

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