Russia ups precautionary steps against Ebola

Moscow, Aug 6: Russia has taken necessary measures to avert importation of Ebola infection while developing a specialised vaccine, the government authorities said here Wednesday.

"In order to identify those infected among arrivals all passengers are invited to walk through special frame detectors that sound an alarm if the temperature of the person's body is above normal," Xinhua quoted officials of Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, as saying.

The check is applicable to all European flights as there were no direct air links connecting Moscow with the epidemic-hit countries in Western Africa.

Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova told reporters Tuesday that the outbreak of Ebola in those countries posed no threat so far to Russia, and a new Russian Ebola vaccine was undergoing preclinical studies.

"We have an ample supply of diagnosing means, as well as medications for symptomatic specific medical treatment," she said, adding all hospitals have been checked for the ability to accommodate and treat patients with particularly risky infections.

Ebola hemorrhagic fever is a highly infectious disease caused by the Ebola virus. The outbreak, by far the largest in the nearly 40-year history of the disease, has affected 1,603 and killed 887 people this year in four western African countries -- Guinea, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone -- according to the World Health Organisation.

IANS