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Pressure has mounted on Russia to provide information and demonstrate greater transparency regarding reports of the death of a laboratory worker in Siberia who was working with plague, amid reports of a second suspected case.
The United States formally requested that Russia provide information, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. State Department, while U.S. President Donald Trump said he would soon speak with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the matter.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated in a statement today that the organization needs additional information from Russia to fully understand the circumstances of the incident.
The Russian news website People of Baikal reported last Friday that Daria Shipilova, 28, the employee who died, may have contracted pneumonic plague following the breakage of a test tube. The website also stated that approximately 200 people who were possibly exposed to her have been placed in quarantine.
In response to a question about whether Moscow had informed Beijing about the incident, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang said yesterday that China and Russia maintain close communication and cooperation to prevent and control infectious diseases, including pneumonic plague.
It is worth noting that slightly more than a month ago, the institute in Irkutsk concluded an emergency response exercise with China on handling outbreaks of infectious diseases. Russian and Chinese participants also discussed how to monitor and control the spread of diseases in border regions between the two countries.
Irkutsk Oblast is located north of Mongolia and does not share a direct border with China, but its regional capital is a major hub connected to Chinese cities by frequent flights and railway lines.
Mongolia’s Ministry of Health issued a statement today, in which it assessed the risk posed by the incident as “low,” according to Bloomberg. The ministry added that efforts would continue to secure border safety and monitor the health situation at the border with Russia, in coordination with relevant agencies.
Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing (Rospotrebnadzor) ruled out today any “epidemic threat” to the residents of Irkutsk and the surrounding region in Siberia. The agency stated that medical monitoring of more than 90 percent of the individuals who had contact with the woman had been completed, noting that “no health problems related to an infectious disease have been detected,” and reaffirming that “there is no epidemic threat to the residents of Irkutsk city and its oblast.”
Rospotrebnadzor had said yesterday that the cause of death had not been confirmed, adding that Shipilova died after suffering from pneumonia, but it did not disclose the cause of the illness or how she contracted it.
