Russia Says No Epidemic Risk After Plague Lab Worker’s Death as WHO Presses for Answers

Russia’s health regulator said Wednesday that the death of a laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia poses no risk of an epidemic, even as the World Health Organization pressed Moscow for more information about what killed her.

The 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute died on Friday of pneumonia whose origin has not been established, according to Reuters. About 200 people were initially placed in quarantine. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, said medical monitoring has been completed for more than 90% of her contacts, that nearly 5,000 laboratory tests found no dangerous pathogens, and that it is winding down precautionary measures in the Irkutsk region. The agency said the worker had been vaccinated against the infections she worked with but did not say what caused the pneumonia.

WHO says a full risk assessment is not yet possible

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Wednesday that the organization needs more information from Russia to understand what happened, and asked Moscow to clarify the cause of the severe pneumonia and media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause. In remarks reported by CNN, he said timely and transparent information sharing is essential to clarify conflicting reports and assess any public health risk.

Dr. Maria Van Kerkhove, who leads the WHO’s epidemic and pandemic management work, said the agency has asked Russian health officials which tests were conducted and, if the technician did not die from plague, what did kill her, according to CNN. The WHO initially assessed the risk to the general public as low, but on Wednesday updated that early evaluation: it said a full risk assessment has not yet been possible and the risk from the event is undetermined, according to CNN.

Washington escalates its request; Kremlin pushes back

The United States has formally requested more information from the Russian government, a State Department spokesperson said, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that it is incumbent on Russia to share more, according to CNN. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia had informed the WHO under established procedures and criticized media coverage of the case as largely false information, according to Reuters. Reuters said it found no evidence in Russian media to support social-media claims that a second person in Siberia had died.

The exact cause of the technician’s death remains unknown.

Reporting based on coverage by Reuters and CNN.