US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said that his department is monitoring reports of plague in Russia “closely”, adding that while he doesn’t think it’s cause for alarm, “it is cause for focus”.
Rubio’s comments come following unconfirmed reports over the weekend that a female employee at an anti-plague research institute in the eastern city of Irkutsk died on October 2, two days after becoming ill.
According to the Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, the woman died of “pneumonia of unknown etiology”, or origin. It described the epidemiological situation in the region as “stable”, but said that a “special set of measures” had been implemented in response to the situation.
Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova flew from Moscow to Irkutsk for meetings with local officials over the weekend, including with the Governor of Irkutsk Oblast Igor Kobzev.
Kobzev on Monday sought to calm growing concerns, claiming that no other staff from the research institute in question had sought medical help.
Initial reports, including from the People of Baikal publication, identified the victim as 28-year-old Daria Shipilova and attributed the illness to pneumonic plague contracted through a workplace accident.
According to People of Baikal, approximately 200 people with whom Daria might have come into contact were quarantined, with subsequent reports claiming that quarantine procedures had been implemented at a number of local hospitals.
Commenting on the situation on Monday, Secretary Rubio said that information was limited to that which was provided by the Russian authorities.
“It seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected and there’s concern that that could spread, at least internally, so you’ve seen them do quarantines and things of that nature,” he told reporters.
“There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread. So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to keep an eye on it.”
Meanwhile, Euronews reported that the European Commission is also monitoring the situation in Siberia, a spokesperson telling the outlet that the Commission is in touch with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organisation (WHO) regarding the matter.
The WHO describes plague as a “very severe disease” with a case-fatality ratio of 30 percent to 100 percent if left untreated.
“The pneumonic and septicaemic forms are invariably fatal unless treated early,” the WHO says.
Plague was the illness that drove the 14th century “Black Death” pandemic, which is believed to have caused upwards of 50 million deaths in Europe. However, it is now considered easily treatable with early detection and antibiotic medication.