 Efetov was born in Simferopol on July 18, 1958.In 1975, having graduated from school with Gold Medal, he entered the Crimea Medical Institute and graduated from it magna cum laude (with honours) in 1981.After completion of his postgraduate course, in 1986 he became Philosophy Doctor of Medicine having defended his PhD thesis "Stability of Conformation of Immunoglobulins G at Norm and Chronic Lymphoid Leukaemia" (Efetov's Scientific Adviser was Professor G. V. Troitsky, the Corresponding Member of the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Honored Scientist of Ukraine).