US President Donald Trump said that Washington is closely watching reports of a possible plague case in Russia and offered assistance to Moscow if needed. The comments came after reports of the death of a laboratory worker in Siberia raised concerns about a possible pneumonic plague infection and a potential laboratory accident.
“We’re looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked about the reported risk of plague spreading from Russia. “We’ll help them, we’ll help them as much as we can.”
The reports centred on 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who was said to have died after working at an anti-plague institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region. Some reports linked her death to pneumonic plague and raised the possibility of an incident involving laboratory material.
Russia disputes pneumonic plague reports
Russian authorities have rejected the claim that Shipilova died from plague. Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said an investigation determined that she had died from pneumonia of “undetermined aetiology”.
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According to Kobzev, Russia’s consumer and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor did not detect microorganisms associated with the woman’s work in her biological samples.
Kobzev also said that no other employees at the anti-plague institute had required medical treatment following her death. He said the sanitary situation in the region remained stable.
Russian outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed security sources, had reported that Shipilova may have contracted pneumonic plague after a test tube broke. Other reports raised similar concerns about a possible laboratory accident and said as many as 200 people had reportedly been quarantined.
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Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged the public to depend on official information rather than “rumours and speculations”.
US keeps watch on Russia situation
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Washington was monitoring the reports but said there was no “cause for alarm”. “Something like that gets out, it could quickly spread,” Rubio said, adding that the US was keeping a close watch.
Pneumonic plague is a serious form of plague that can spread through respiratory droplets and may become fatal if treatment is delayed, according to the World Health Organisation.
The reports have also attracted attention in Washington amid continuing interest in infectious disease outbreaks following the Covid-19 pandemic and debates over its origins.
Malick Gibani, a clinical associate professor in bacterial vaccinology at Imperial College London, said the measures reportedly taken in Russia appeared “proportionate”, pointing to quarantine and monitoring as steps that could limit potential transmission.