Reported Russian pneumonic plague outbreak ‘cause for focus,’ but not alarm, Rubio says
“There's very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously. But like anything else, something like that gets out it could certainly spread,” Rubio said.
WASHINGTON, The US government is asking Russia to “quickly and openly” say what it knows about a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak in Siberia as global panic mounts.
“Many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” a State Department spokesman said Monday in a statement.
“We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the death of Russian plague institute worker Daria Shipilova, 28, “cause for focus” but not alarm earlier Monday.
Shipilova worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and reportedly died from pneumonia of unknown origin, prompting a quarantine of the hospital.
“We know what we know, obviously, about whatever the Russians have provided , which is, it seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected, and this concern that could have spread, at least internally,” Rubio told reporters as he departed Washington for a trip to Europe.
“You’ve seen them do quarantines. There’s very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously. But like anything else, something like that gets out, it could certainly spread,” the diplomat added.
“So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an eye on it.”
Pneumonic plague can spread from person to person via the air and is almost always fatal if not treated quickly with antibiotics.
Very few pneumonic plague cases are recorded each year, and those that are typically occur in Africa and burn out without spreading widely.
One of the worst known outbreaks occurred between October 1910 and April 1911 in Manchuria, killing about 60,000 people .
That outbreak was suppressed with widespread use of face masks and was believed to have been sparked by hunters handling tarbagan marmots.
Global concern about the Russian case follows the outbreak of COVID-19, which many believe leaked from the Wuhan Institute of Virology in central China before killing more than 1.2 million Americans and dramatically impacting everyday life.
