President Donald Trump said he expects to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin “very soon” as Washington presses Moscow for more information about the death of a laboratory worker in Siberia amid unconfirmed reports of possible pneumonic plague exposure.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the unexplained death of a laboratory employee at an anti-plague institute in Siberia, as U.S. officials urged Moscow to provide more information about whether the case involved a dangerous infectious disease.
“I have a call scheduled, yes,” Trump told reporters at the White House when asked whether he had spoken with Putin about the incident.
Trump said the conversation would take place “very soon.”
The planned call follows growing U.S. pressure on Russia to clarify what happened at the anti-plague facility in Irkutsk, where 28-year-old laboratory employee Darya Shipilova died after developing severe illness.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during a trip to Iceland that Moscow should disclose additional information to the international community.
“We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately,” Rubio said.
“Depending on what we learn about it, we would learn how to respond.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department also sent Moscow a confidential diplomatic communication, known as a demarche, warning that withholding relevant information could conflict with Russia’s international public-health obligations.
Russian officials continue to deny that plague has been detected.
The regional government and Russia’s public-health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, say postmortem testing found no evidence that Shipilova died from plague or another pathogen associated with her work at the institute.
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev said Monday that an investigation found Shipilova had died from pneumonia, although the underlying cause remained “undetermined.”
“No microorganisms linked to the young woman’s professional work were found in her biological samples,” Kobzev said.
He also said no other employees at the facility had sought medical attention since her death.
Those statements conflict with unconfirmed reports in independent Russian media suggesting Shipilova may have been exposed to pneumonic plague after a laboratory accident.
Russian outlet People of Baikal reported Friday that a test tube may have broken during her work and that she subsequently developed symptoms consistent with severe infection.
The outlet also reported that as many as 200 possible contacts had been placed under quarantine.
Russian authorities have disputed those reports.
Rospotrebnadzor separately denied the authenticity of a document circulating online that purported to show special anti-plague restrictions had been imposed.
“We wish to clarify that the document and information in question do not originate from official sources and are untrue,” the agency said.
The World Health Organization said Tuesday that it had received an update from Russian authorities stating that “no case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk.”
According to WHO, Russia described the incident as a case of community-acquired pneumonia involving an employee of the institute and said an epidemiological investigation had been launched.
Contacts were identified and arrangements made for medical monitoring and laboratory testing.
“Test results showed no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts,” the Russian update said, according to WHO.
The international health agency said it was continuing to monitor the situation.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier characterized the current risk in Irkutsk as “moderate to low” based on the information available.
That assessment could change if new laboratory or epidemiological evidence emerges.
Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and can appear in several forms.
Bubonic plague, the most common form, usually spreads through the bites of infected fleas and causes fever and swollen lymph nodes.
Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and is the most dangerous form from a person-to-person transmission standpoint because respiratory droplets can spread the bacteria during close contact.
Without prompt antibiotic treatment, pneumonic plague can progress rapidly and can be fatal.
Modern antibiotics are generally effective when treatment begins early.
Trump said Monday that the United States was prepared to provide assistance to Russia if it became necessary.
Russian officials responded Tuesday by saying Moscow was prepared to help the United States deal with its own infectious-disease outbreaks.
Rospotrebnadzor cited rising U.S. measles cases and referenced a fatal human plague case reported in New Mexico in June.
The exchange added a political dimension to an incident that Russian authorities have sought to characterize as a contained medical investigation rather than an outbreak.
The situation has drawn particular attention because Shipilova worked at an anti-plague institute, raising immediate concerns about occupational exposure even though Russian officials say testing has found no evidence connecting her death to pathogens handled at the facility.
The case also comes weeks before an international conference on plague and other dangerous infectious diseases scheduled for Oct. 21-22 in Irkutsk.
Organizers have said the conference was planned independently and is unrelated to Shipilova’s death.
For Washington, the immediate issue is obtaining enough information to independently evaluate whether the episode poses any wider public-health concern.
Rubio’s request for transparency and Trump’s planned call with Putin indicate that the administration is treating the matter as more than a routine local health investigation.
At the same time, there remains no confirmed evidence that Shipilova died from plague.
Russian authorities say testing has been negative, WHO says it has received no confirmation of an Irkutsk plague case, and no secondary infections have been reported among the identified contacts.
The unanswered question is therefore not whether a plague outbreak has been established — it has not — but whether Russia has provided enough evidence for outside health authorities to independently rule out the possibility that a laboratory exposure contributed to Shipilova’s death.
Original article
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