(Bloomberg) — President Donald Trump said the United States is investigating a suspected case of plague in Russia following the death of a laboratory worker and will offer assistance to Russian authorities.
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“We’re paying attention to it, we’re just hearing about it,” Trump told reporters Monday. “They call it pneumonia. And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia more easily. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger, disproportionately so, but we will help them,” Trump said. “We will help them as much as possible.”
The president’s comments follow the death of an employee of an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Siberian region of Irkutsk, which led to nearly 200 contacts being placed under observation.
The 28-year-old laboratory worker died last week from severe pneumonia. Russian media reported that she may have been exposed to the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague after breaking a test tube at the institute. Russia’s public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, disputed this version.
The woman was diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause and extensive testing revealed no microorganisms associated with her work, Interfax cited the agency as saying. A commission of experts sent to the institute found no accidents involving pathogenic microorganisms, confirming the conclusions of safety observers, the press release said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters Monday that he didn’t think the case was “a reason to be alarmed, but it was a reason to focus and just keep an eye on it — and that’s what we’re doing.” Rubio said the administration was aware of the information provided by the Russian government.
Nearly 200 people who may have been in contact with the woman have been placed under medical observation, the Moscow Times reported. Rospotrebnadzor said the contacts were undergoing daily laboratory testing and that two cases of Covid-19 and two rhinovirus infections had been detected, according to Interfax. No other infectious diseases were detected and none of the contacts developed signs of infectious disease.
The epidemiological situation remained stable, Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said, according to Axios. Russian authorities have not confirmed that the woman was suffering from the plague.
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