The U.S. government is actively monitoring a suspected outbreak of the plague in Russia following the death of a 28-year-old lab worker who was reportedly infected after coming into contact with a broken test tube containing the pathogen.
“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia,” a State Department spokesperson told The Washington Sun in a statement Sunday. “We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners.”
The State Department spokesperson also called on “Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” and said that cases of the plague are “treatable with common antibiotics, especially when treatment starts early.”
Russia is already designated by the State Department as a Level 4 “do not travel” country, but the spokesperson encouraged U.S. citizens traveling abroad to enroll in its Smart Traveler Enrollment Program to receive updates.
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A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services confirmed that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is working with the State Department to address the developing situation and added that “the safety and security of U.S. citizens is our highest priority.”
The White House is also monitoring the situation and the quarantines in Russia, Axios reported Sunday. The White House and CDC did not immediately respond to The Sun’s request for comment.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s national public health and consumer protection agency, wrote in a statement Sunday to Interfax — a privately owned news agency in Russia — that the lab technician was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and described the situation in the Irkutsk Region, an area located in southeastern Siberia, as “stable.”
Independent Siberian news outlet Lyudi Baikala identified the patient as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked as a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. The outlet also reported that Shipilova allegedly broke a tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen on Sept. 25 — an account Rospotrebnadzor has not yet publicly corroborated.
Subsequent tests run “due to the patient’s professional activities,” did not identify the plague pathogen, and tests on quarantined individuals who had been in contact with the patient only found “two cases of Covid-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection,” according to Rospotrebnadzor.
Izvestia, a Russian state-aligned media outlet, reported that at least 197 people who may have had contact with Shipilova have been placed under medical isolation.
This story has been updated to include a comment from HHS.
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