The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday it was cooperating with Russian authorities after the death of a lab technician from the Institute for Plague Control in Russia's Irkutsk region in Siberia was reported, AFP reported, BTA reported.
"The initial UN risk assessment, based on available information, indicates that the risk is moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for the Russian Federation as a whole and very low for the European region," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a news conference in Geneva.
The WHO, quoted by Reuters, said Russian authorities had identified all people who had been in contact with the deceased lab technician.
Russia welcomed the proposal by the president of US Donald Trump for assistance after the death of an employee at the Russian plague research institute, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, quoted by Reuters.
Peskov said that the Russian health watchdog "Rospotrebnadzor" is monitoring the case and will provide additional information as it becomes available, while also monitoring the development of the situation after the death of the laboratory employee. Russia is ready to assist Washington in containing outbreaks of infectious diseases in the United States, the Russian service said.
"Russia is ready to provide the American side with specialists, laboratory equipment, as well as means of diagnosis and prevention," the service said, referring to recent cases of infectious diseases in the United States, including measles and one death from plague.