Russian-Made Ebola Vaccine to Be Tested on Humans Within Months

MOSCOW (Sputnik) — A Russian-made Ebola vaccine is expected to undergo tests on humans within months, Nikolai Briko, head epidemiologist at the Russian Health Ministry said on Thursday.

According to Briko, Guinean infectious disease specialists have already been using Russian-made Ebola diagnosis kits.

“They use Russian-made [Ebola] virus diagnosis kits, [specifically] two of them. Hopefully, we will have Ebola vaccine in the near future. I think, [we will have it] within some months,” Briko told Russian journalists.

On March 17, Russian Health Minister Veronika Skvortsova said that four Russian-made vaccines are being tested on Ebola infected monkeys. In January, Russia's Health Ministry said that a Russian-made vaccine may become available early 2016.

On Wednesday, Japanese pharmaceutical company Denka Seiken announced that it had developed a diagnostic kit that detects the Ebola virus in 15 minutes.

Researchers at the Hokkaido University Research Center for Zoonosis Control successfully tested the blood serum of Ebola infected monkeys, according to media reports. Tests on the blood serum of humans are expected soon.

The current Ebola virus epidemic began in southern Guinea and later spread to Liberia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria and Senegal. The current outbreak has killed over 10,000 people since its discovery in 2014, according to WHO.

Although there is no officially approved cure for the disease, several countries, including Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Japan have been diligently working on a vaccine.