The World Health Organization has assessed the public health risk in Russia as low after reports that a laboratory technician had died from plague.
The death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of an anti-plague institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region, prompted concern after reports said she had contracted pneumonic plague.
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“Based on the information currently available, WHO’s initial risk assessment is moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for the Russian Federation as a whole and very low for the WHO European region,” the UN agency’s spokesman, Christian Lindmeier, said.
“A woman who worked at a laboratory in Irkutsk oblast has died, and the authorities are investigating whether pneumonic plague was responsible,” he told a press briefing in Geneva.
“Her illness initially appeared to be a typical acute respiratory viral infection,” he said.
Mr Lindmeier said Russian authorities had identified the people who had been in contact with Ms Shipilova and were monitoring them.
“Test results showed that no pathogens associated with dangerous infectious diseases had been detected among any of the contacts,” he said.
“WHO is closely following the situation and working with its headquarters to keep other countries informed.” The agency is also prepared to assist Russian authorities if requested.
Russia has sought to play down reports that Ms Shipilova died from plague, while US President Donald Trump said Washington was watching developments closely and had offered assistance.
“We’re looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it,” Mr Trump told reporters at the White House when asked how the US would respond to the risk of plague spreading from Russia.
“We’ll help them, we’ll help them as much as we can.”
The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources said to be close to regional security services, reported that Ms Shipilova may have contracted pneumonic plague after a test tube broke.
Other media reports also suggested that her death could have been connected to an accident at the laboratory.
People of Baikal said as many as 200 people who may have come into contact with her had been placed under quarantine, though it provided no further details.
Russian officials, however, said post-mortem testing had found no evidence of the disease.
Irkutsk Regional Governor Igor Kobzev said a special expert commission had inspected the region and concluded that “the cause of death was pneumonia of undetermined aetiology”.
Writing on Telegram, he said Russia’s consumer and health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, had found through testing that “no microorganisms linked to the young woman’s professional work were found in her biological samples”.
He added that “no new cases of staff from the anti-plague institute seeking medical attention” had been reported since the woman’s death.
Mr Kobzev described the sanitary-epidemiological situation in Irkutsk as “stable”.
“The situation remains under our control and that of the experts.”
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‘Rumours and speculations’
Asked about the reports yesterday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged journalists to “rely on Rospotrebnadzor’s official statements rather than … rumours and speculations”.
Plague is a bacterial infection that can take several forms. Pneumonic plague is the most contagious and can spread through respiratory transmission, while bubonic plague is passed on by infected fleas.
The World Health Organization says pneumonic plague can be fatal without prompt treatment.
The reports are likely to be watched closely in Washington, where memories of the Covid-19 pandemic that began during Mr Trump’s first term remain vivid.
Mr Trump has strongly supported the theory that Covid-19 resulted from a laboratory leak in Wuhan, China.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was monitoring developments in Russia but saw no “cause for alarm”.
“There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread,” Mr Rubio told reporters before departing for a visit to Iceland.
“So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we’re doing that.”
Experts said the measures reportedly taken by Russia appeared to be “proportionate”.
“It appears that measures are being implemented to quarantine any potential contacts and prevent any onward transmission,” Malick Gibani, a clinical associate professor in bacterial vaccinology at Imperial College London, said in a commentary.
