Plague had not been detected among close contacts of a worker in an anti-plague laboratory in Siberia who died last week, with 60% of the identified group tested so far, officials in Russia said Tuesday.News from Russia’s consumer and health watchdog on Sunday that a female staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East had died from a “pneumonia of undetermined” origin last week has raised public health fears worldwide.“Laboratory testing identified two cases of Covid-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection,” watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement, referring to the virus that causes the common cold.“No other infectious disease pathogens were detected among the contacts,” the statement said, without mentioning the word “plague.”Regional and national Russian authorities have not confirmed that plague was involved in the woman’s death.
But American officials have urged more transparency from Moscow, with a State Department spokesperson saying Monday there had been “reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague” in Irkutsk oblast.Lab workers at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East, in an undated photo.
via APThe World Health Organization, which oversees global public health matters, said Tuesday that Russian health officials had informed the agency in response to its request on the lab worker’s death that no case of plague has been recorded in Irkutsk.“According to the authorities, the woman’s illness initially presented as a typical acute respiratory viral infection,” it said.
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