RUSAL praised for its help in combating the Ebola Virus in Guinea: Ministry of Health, Russia

RUSAL, one of the leading aluminium producers in the world was praised by the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, for its aid and research into the GamEvac-Combi, a Russian fusion vector vaccine against Ebola, in the Republic of Guinea.

The Russian Ministry of Health praised RUSAL for its valuable contribution to help combat the Ebola virus in Guinea, apace with strengthening the relationship between the two countries.

Mr Yakov Itskov, Head of Alumina Business, RUSAL, was rewarded with a medal for ‘Merit For Public Health’ by the Russian health minister.

The other employees of Rusal, who participated in the public-private partnership to control Ebola, were also rewarded with ‘Excellent Worker of Public Health’ badges. These included the top executives like Mr Aleksandr Bregadze, General Director of the Management Company in Guinea, and Mr Vladimir Spiridonov, Chief Medical Officer of RUSAL.

In April 2014, at the peak of the Ebola outbreak, RUSAL was one of the first foreign companies operating in Guinea, to purchase and transfer a batch of medications to the Guinean Ministry of Health, along with sanitary supplies.

Since August 2014, RUSAL has continued delivering equipment and materials to Guinea through its cooperation with a special anti-epidemic team at Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian Agency for Health and Consumer Rights.

In 2015, RUSAL built and fully tooled a clinical and diagnostic research centre of epidemiology and microbiology in Kindia. The investment of RUSAL was accounted to over $10 million concerning the development of the project.

In 2017, some of the research centre facilities were modernised with highly protected inpatient laboratories to run tests. RUSAL overhauled some of the rooms, in the shortest possible timeframe, to make them meet the international standards.

RUSAL played a vital role in delivering and assembling more than 50 tonnes of close-control laboratory equipment.

Vladimir Putin, The Russian President, instructed for the development and testing in support with RUSAL, GamEvac-Combi, the vaccine against Ebola’s hemorrhagic fever, followed by a request from the President of Guinea Alpha Condé in late 2014. The development was processed in the N. F. Gamaleya Federal Research Centre for Epidemiology & Microbiology (the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation).

RUSAL and the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation in December 2019, declared the completion of the Ebola vaccine tests in the Republic of Guinea. Two thousand people were vaccinated with GamEvac-Combi during post-approval studies, which occurred in the Kindia clinical and diagnostic research centre in Guinea