Rubio Says He Doesn’t Think Death Linked to Russian Plague Lab Is Cause for Alarm
The State Department and CDC are monitoring the case as Russian officials say tests found no link to lab materials and nearly 200 contacts were watched.
- On Tuesday, U.S. officials confirmed they are closely monitoring a suspected pneumonic plague death in Russia's Irkutsk region, where a 28-year-old laboratory worker died last week from "pneumonia of unknown etiology."
- Darya Shipilova, a technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, fell ill on September 29 and died days later, prompting authorities to quarantine the Shelekhov hospital amid unconfirmed reports of a laboratory accident involving Yersinia pestis.
- Russian public health agency Rospotrebnadzor placed nearly 200 contacts under medical observation; officials deny any laboratory accident and state that testing detected "no microorganisms associated with the woman's professional activities" in her samples.
- Washington is watching the situation "very closely," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, urging transparency while the U.S. State Department noted that "many details have not been confirmed."
- Assessing the public health risk as low, the World Health Organization noted no wider outbreak has been confirmed; experts emphasize that prompt antibiotic treatment is effective for suspected plague cases.
261 Articles
261 Articles
Washington maintains contacts with Moscow following the death of a 28-year-old researcher in Irkutsk, while WHO considers the risk to Europe to be "very low"
(Washington = Yonhap News) Correspondent Park Sung-min = The Donald Trump administration's response to the suspected Russian plague pathogen leak is... due to a lack of specific information.
The United States asks Moscow to provide more information about the death of a researcher from a plague research institute in Siberia and the possible risks associated with the incident. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that Washington is following the case "hourly and warned that the situation could be more serious than the Russian authorities have so far acknowledged, writes Reuters. The request comes on the basis of the amplificati…
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