Star Metro - Russia downplays plague reports as Trump offers US help

Reports on Friday that pneumonic plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, sparked alarm.

"We're looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia.

"We'll help them, we'll help them as much as we can."

The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said the dead woman may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.

Other media reported a possible link between her death and a lab accident at the facility.

As many as 200 people with whom she may have had contact were under quarantine, the People of Baikal outlet added, without elaborating.

But Russian officials stressed that postmortem tests had not detected the disease.

Irkutsk Regional Governor Igor Kobzev said Monday that a special expert commission inspection in the region had found that "the cause of death was pneumonia of undetermined aetiology".

He said on Telegram that Russia's consumer and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had determined, following tests, that "no microorganisms linked to the young woman's professional work were found in her biological samples".

He added that there had been "no new cases of staff from the anti-plague institute seeking medical attention" since the woman's death.

Kobzev said the sanitary-epidemiological situation in Irkutsk was "stable".

"The situation remains under our control and that of the experts."

- 'Rumours and speculations' -

Asked about the situation on Monday, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters to "rely on Rospotrebnadzor's official statements rather than... rumours and speculations".

Plague is a bacterial disease that can occur in several forms, including pneumonic plague, which is the most contagious type and can be transmitted by respiratory means. Bubonic plague is transmitted by infected fleas.

Pneumonic plague can be fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization.

The reports will be closely watched in Washington, where memories of the Covid-19 pandemic that started in Trump's first term are still fresh.

Trump has strongly backed the theory that the disease was due to a leak from a laboratory in Wuhan, China.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said his country was monitoring the Russia situation but saw no "cause for alarm".

"There's very limited travel between the US and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread," Rubio told reporters before taking off for a visit to Iceland.

"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 to just keep an eye on it. And we're doing that."

Experts said the reported response in Russia appeared "proportionate".

"It appears that measures are being implemented to quarantine any potential contacts and prevent any onward transmission," Malick Gibani, clinical associate professor in bacterial vaccinology, Imperial College London, said in a commentary.

A.Landry--SMC