Russia denies imposing anti-plague measures after death of worker

MOSCOW – Russian authorities denied on Oct 6 that they were imposing anti-plague measures after a laboratory technician reportedly died of the disease, and reacted to Washington’s offer of assistance by proposing to help battle US infectious diseases.

It was reported last week that a worker at an anti-plague institute in Siberia’s Irkutsk region died of pneumonic plague.

But the authorities say the cause of death is not confirmed, and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor has denied claims circulating in a document online that special measures have been put in place.

“We wish to clarify that the document and information in question do not originate from official sources and are untrue,” it said on Telegram.

“No such decisions have been made at this time,” it said, stressing that the health situation in the region was stable.

Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported on Oct 2 that the dead woman – named as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova – may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.

Other media reported a possible link between her death and a lab accident at the facility.

The People of Baikal outlet also said up to 200 people with whom she may have had contact were under quarantine.

But Russian officials said postmortem tests did not detect the disease.

Irkutsk Regional Governor Igor Kobzev said on Oct 5 that a Rospotrebnadzor watchdog inspection found that the woman died of pneumonia, and the cause was “undetermined”.

“No microorganisms linked to the young woman’s professional work were found in her biological samples,” he said.

And there had been “no new cases of staff from the anti-plague institute seeking medical attention” since the death, he added.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said that an update received on Oct 6 from Russia stressed that “no case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk”.

The update said Russia launched an epidemiological investigation into a “case of community-acquired pneumonia” in an employee at the Irkutsk institute, and identified contacts and made arrangements for medical monitoring and laboratory testing.

“Test results showed no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts,” the update said, according to the WHO.

Based on the information currently available, the United Nations health agency “estimates the risk to be moderate to low for Irkutsk”, spokesman Christian Lindmeier told said during a news briefing.

He said the risk was low for Russia as a whole, and very low for the rest of Europe.

Nonetheless, he stressed that the United Nations health agency was monitoring the situation closely and was seeking to verify the event and the laboratory tests.

Plague is a bacterial disease that can occur in several forms, including pneumonic plague, which is the most contagious type and can be transmitted by respiratory means. Bubonic plague is transmitted by infected fleas.

Pneumonic plague, which causes lung failure, can be fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanded on Oct 6 that Russia be “transparent” about the situation, which he said Washington was monitoring “very closely”.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio said in the Icelandic capital of Reykjavik.

US President Donald Trump, meanwhile, said his government was looking at the situation “very strongly”.

“We’ll help them as much as we can,” he told reporters on Oct 5.

In an apparent response, Rospotrebnadzor announced on Oct 6 that Russia was prepared to assist the United States in combating its own outbreaks of infectious diseases.

“The situation regarding dangerous infectious diseases remains unstable,” it said, highlighting among other things a “significantly worsened” measles situation in three US states and a “fatal case of plague” recorded in New Mexico in June.

Russia, it stressed, “possesses extensive practical and scientific experience in ensuring epidemiological well-being, both domestically and internationally”, and was “prepared to provide the US side with specialists, laboratory equipment and highly effective diagnostic and preventive tools”.

An international conference on plague and other infectious diseases will, meanwhile, be held in Irkutsk on Oct 21 to 22.

The conference was arranged in June, and organisers said it was “unrelated to the recent death of an employee of the anti-plague institute”. AFP