The United States is monitoring passengers arriving from Siberia over reports of a possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention assessed the risk to the country as “extremely low“, but has prepared additional surveillance measures.
The director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Erica Schwartz, announced that a medical point has been set up at the “John F. Kennedy“ airport in New York. According to data cited by US health authorities, about 200 people travel from Siberia to the US annually. Direct flights between the two countries have been suspended since 2022, so passengers usually arrive with layovers.
The US action comes as the cause of death of a Russian laboratory worker remains unclear. Darya Shipilova, 28, worked at a plague research institute in Irkutsk. She was admitted to hospital with severe pneumonia and died, with Russian authorities describing the illness as pneumonia of unknown etiology.
According to unconfirmed media reports on September 25, Shipilova broke a test tube containing the causative agent of pneumonic plague. This version has not been confirmed by Russian health authorities. The Russian health authorities said that the expanded tests did not find microorganisms related to the deceased's professional activity, and no plague was detected among the contacts.
WHO is checking data on a second employee
The World Health Organization has asked the Russian authorities for additional data on the cause of the severe pneumonia, the pathogen that led to the health measures, as well as media reports of a second employee of the institute with pneumonia of unknown origin.
“There may be nothing there. It may be more serious than we thought. We don't know“, said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.The WHO also reported that Russia has placed about 200 contact persons under observation or isolation. So far, there has been no confirmed case of pneumonic plague among them. The organization states that it still does not have complete information about the causative agent of the disease and the circumstances surrounding the infection.
Moscow rejects reports of a second case. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the "predominant part" of media publications on the subject is false information and called for data to be drawn from official statements by the Russian health authorities.
So far, only the fact of the death of the institute employee and the placement of contact persons under medical observation remains confirmed. The pneumonic plague, the alleged laboratory accident and the second case have not been officially confirmed.
Sources: unian.net, apnews.com, axios.com