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Moscow denies sanitary measures over plague reports / Photo: Igor IVANKO - AFP
Moscow denies sanitary measures over plague reports
Russian authorities denied Tuesday that special restrictions had been introduced over reports that a laboratory technician died of plague, even as Washington said it was closely monitoring events.
Reports on Friday that pneumonic plague had killed 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, sparked alarm.
Russia's consumer and health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor however insisted Tuesday that a document circulating online indicating heightened sanitary-epidemiological measures and restrictions in the Irkutsk region was fake.
"We wish to clarify that the document and information in question do not originate from official sources and are untrue," it said on Telegram.
"No such decisions have been made at this time," it said, stressing that "the sanitary-epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk Region ... remains stable".
The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said Friday 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 have stressed that postmortem tests had not detected the disease.
Irkutsk Regional Governor Igor Kobzev said Monday that a special Rospotrebnadzor expert commission inspection in the region had found that "the cause of death was pneumonia of undetermined aetiology".
The health watchdog, he said, had determined that "no microorganisms linked to the young woman's professional work were found in her biological samples".
And there had been "no new cases of staff from the anti-plague institute seeking medical attention" since the death, he added.
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, which causes lung failure, can be fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization.
US President Donald Trump said Monday that his administration was closely monitoring the situation.
"We're looking at it very strongly," 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 as much as we can."
Y.X. Gagnon--SMC
