President Donald Trump says the United States is ready to help Russia with a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak. We just heard about it,” Trump said, adding that he had not spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about it but is prepared to offer US support. Earlier on Monday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio downplayed the danger as well.
Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and are tracing the contacts of an employee at a plague research institute in the remote Siberian region of Irkutsk who died of a suspected pneumonic plague infection. Local media identified the employee as 28-year-old laboratory technician Darya Shipilova. Official details about the incident have been limited, and Russian media reports say authorities in Irkutsk have placed nearly 200 people under medical observation.
On Sunday, Russia’s official TASS news agency reported that the country’s consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor, said an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” or origin. The agency also said it had expanded sample testing from the patient and found no microorganisms associated with her work. On Saturday, the governor of neighbouring Buryatia region said in a post on his Telegram channel that a woman in Irkutsk had “died, maybe of the plague”.
In a statement to Al Jazeera, a US State Department official said: “We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly.” Pneumonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. According to the WHO, the plague is highly infectious and can be fatal if not treated early. The plague comes in three forms affecting different parts of the body.
Pneumonic plague, an infection of the lungs, triggers the patient to cough out infectious airborne droplets. If identified quickly, antibiotics can treat the disease. Left untreated, it can be fatal in one to six days.
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