After the death of an employee at a plague research center in Siberia, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the USA are pressing for more information from Russia. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on the Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump announced that he wanted to speak to Kremlin chief Vladimir Putin on the phone because of the lab technician's unclear illness that resulted in his death.
When asked by a reporter whether he had spoken to Putin about the case in which pneumonic plague was suspected, Trump said in Washington: "I have an appointment for a phone call." It will take place very soon. The US State Department had previously called on the Russian authorities to share information quickly and transparently.
The 28-year-old scientist, who worked at the Institute for Combating Plague Diseases, died on Friday in the district hospital in the city of Shelekhov near Irkutsk in Siberia. According to the Russian agency responsible for disease control, the woman's death was not due to a plague pathogen. She named the cause of death as “pneumonia of unknown origin.”
WHO offers support
The WHO offered Russia help in identifying the cause. Tedros said they are in contact with the Russian health authorities and have offered technical support.
A timely, complete and transparent exchange of information under the International Health Regulations is essential to resolve conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of possible public health risks. According to initial media reports, it could be pneumonic plague after the pathogen was allegedly accidentally released in the laboratory. According to the Russian authorities, no highly dangerous pathogens were detected in the contact persons and the medical observation of all identified contact persons has been completed, the WHO chief wrote.
Pneumonic plague is a severe form of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It can occur when the infection spreads to the lungs. The disease can be treated with antibiotics if therapy begins early. According to the Robert Koch Institute (RKI), the plague still occurs in countries in Africa, America and Asia, but not in Germany.
US prosecutes case
The US health authority CDC announced on Platform The CDC also made it clear that the reported case was not confirmed.
The US Embassy in Moscow also wrote on its website that it was keeping a close eye on the situation. The US government's ability to help Americans in Russia is limited - especially outside of Moscow. U.S. government employees may face additional restrictions on personal and business travel to certain regions due to health and safety concerns, it said.
The Wall Street Journal reported, citing U.S. government officials, that the U.S. had warned Moscow that it would violate international health obligations if details of the lab worker's death were not disclosed. Russia is said to have provided the USA with little information about the mysterious incident.
Remembering Corona fuels speculation
There is already speculation on the Internet about a possible impending epidemic. There are many reasons for this: On the one hand, the global corona epidemic began at the turn of the year 2019/20 with reports of a mysterious lung disease in the city of Wuhan in China. However, the course of infections is different with plague pathogens than with Covid-19.
On the other hand, Russian or Soviet authorities have often denied or downplayed catastrophes - be it the nuclear disaster in Chernobyl in 1986 or the sinking of the nuclear submarine “Kursk” in 2000. Trust in the official reports is low. This year, Russian authorities in Siberia slaughtered thousands of farm animals because of alleged animal diseases, even though farmers believed their livestock to be healthy.
