Alexander Gintsburg, scientific director of the Gamaleya Centre, said that the Russian Ebola vaccine likely provides protection against the rare Bundibugyo strain currently spreading in Africa. The genetic similarity between this virus variant and the vaccine strain is about 60-70%, he said. Therefore, medical workers in outbreak zones should be vaccinated with the existing vaccine, even though no targeted efficacy tests against this strain have been conducted.
At the same time, Gintsburg stressed the need to develop a separate vaccine against Bundibugyo. However, the institute does not yet have a sample of this pathogen. “I believe the existing vaccine may confer immunity against this pathogen, though we have not tested it. In the absence of other means, it should be used,” he told Izvestia.
The epicentre of the current outbreak is in Ituri province in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, which borders Uganda. The DRC’s health service received its first alerts on May 5. On May 17, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. So far, more than 500 suspected cases have been identified in the DRC, with at least 131 deaths. Uganda has reported one case and one death – both in DRC nationals who recently arrived in the country.
On May 17, the WHO declared the Ebola outbreaks in the DRC and Uganda a public health emergency of international concern. The situation is complicated by the spread of the rare Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or drugs. According to the WHO, more than 500 suspected cases and about 130 deaths have been recorded, with 32 confirmed infections.
Gintsburg assured that the Ebola virus does not threaten Russians. The sanitary and epidemiological measures in place in the country make the spread of infection impossible, he said: even if an infected person arrives from an endemic country, doctors will quickly detect and isolate them. Unlike COVID-19, Ebola does not have an asymptomatic course, belongs to the most severe pathogenicity group (Group 1) and has pronounced symptoms, which facilitates early diagnosis, the scientist noted.
