MOSCOW, Aug. 21 -- Russia is sending a group of medics to Guinea to help fight the Ebola epidemic, Deputy Prime Minister Olga Golodets said Thursday.

"They'll be working along with the scientists from other countries on the new anti-virus drug," Interfax news agency quoted Golodets as saying.

The team consists of eight top Russian virologists, who will undertake maximum precaution to avoid contracting the disease themselves, she said, adding that they will leave later Thursday.

The Ebola outbreak in Western African countries of Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone and Nigeria have claimed more than 1,200 lives since earlier this year.

Noting that no people in Russia has been infected, Golodets said Moscow did not plan to ban the entry of the residents of the countries affected by Ebola.

"We are going to restrict ourselves only with medical control of the visitors," she told reporters, adding that special attention will be paid to visitors from the African countries.

Earlier this month, Russia's consumer rights watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said all passengers arriving at Moscow's Sheremetyevo international airport were invited to walk through special frame detectors that sound an alarm if the temperature of the person's body is above normal.