The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is coordinating with federal agencies to monitor travelers entering the United States from Siberia amid concerns about a possible pneumonic plague outbreak in Russia, the agency's director revealed Wednesday.CDC Director Dr.Erica Schwartz said the Trump administration is working across multiple agencies to identify travelers arriving from the region following the mysterious death of a Russian laboratory worker, while emphasizing that the risk to Americans remains minimal."We are very confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low," Schwartz said during a Wall Street Journal health forum Wednesday.MOTHER OF DEAD RUSSIAN ANTI-PLAGUE INSTITUTE WORKER: 'I KNOW THE TRUTH'Darya Shipilova, 28, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died after developing pneumonia of an unknown cause, prompting quarantines and heightened health precautions in the region.
Russian authorities say testing has found no evidence her illness was linked to pathogens she worked with.(East2West news)The concerns stem from the Oct.
2 death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia, whose death has fueled speculation about a possible pneumonic plague infection.Russian authorities have maintained that Shipilova died from pneumonia of unknown origin and have not confirmed that she was infected with Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague.Schwartz said the CDC is working with the departments of Homeland Security, State and War, among other federal agencies, to track potential arrivals from the region."There are about 200 flights that come into the United States from Siberia, that region," Schwartz said, adding that those flights typically arrive at New York's John F.Kennedy International Airport."We have a port health station set up in JFK so that we can do appropriate surveillance and screening if anyone from...