GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization says there are possible cases of pneumonic plague in Russia and the risk outside the country is “very low,” as investigators look into the death of a lab worker last week.
The U.N. health agency said on Tuesday it was in contact with Russian authorities after receiving reports last week of the death of a woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-plague Research Institute in Siberia and the Far East.
Read more: What we need to know about Russian lab worker death and speculation about pneumonic plague
The case and the investigation led by Russian officials have revived memories of the COVID-19 pandemic and allegations that the coronavirus may have emerged in a Chinese laboratory. The WHO has yet to provide a clear answer on how the pandemic began.
“There is currently no indication that we are dealing with a situation similar to an influenza pandemic,” WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told The Associated Press of the woman’s condition.
Here’s what you need to know about the case and how experts mobilized after her death.
Pneumonic plague is a disease that affects the lungs
Pneumonic plague is the most contagious lung-based disease and its incubation period can be as short as 24 hours, according to the World Health Organization. This is a less common but serious form that can be spread from person to person through respiratory particles.
The World Health Organization says the disease can be fatal if left untreated, but recovery rates are high if detected and treated promptly.
Symptoms include shortness of breath and coughing, often accompanied by coughing up blood.
The more common form of plague – bubonic plague – is caused by the bites of infected fleas, which can develop into open sores filled with pus.
Pneumonia is an acute respiratory infection, mainly caused by viruses or bacteria, and is usually spread through contact with an infected person or airborne droplets. The World Health Organization says pneumonia is the single largest infectious cause of death among children globally.
What Russian officials have to say about the case
Russian health officials said on Tuesday that a full range of preventive measures had been taken through the international health alert system, including contact tracing of the deceased, medical surveillance and laboratory testing.
“Test results show that there are no dangerous infectious pathogens among all contacts,” said a note from Russian authorities, which the WHO forwarded to The Associated Press.
“Based on existing data, laboratory test results and health status, medical monitoring of 100% of contacts has been completed,” the statement read. “The epidemic situation is stable and is still being monitored.”
The woman died in a hospital in Sherekhov, a town outside Irkutsk, and the town’s mayor said the hospital had been placed under quarantine. Senior officials from Russia’s state public health regulator traveled to the region on Friday.
On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised the public to focus on official statements from regulator Rospotrebnadzor rather than “rumors or speculation.”
WHO has mobilized its own experts to investigate the case
World Health Organization spokesman Lindmeier told a U.N. briefing on Tuesday that the institute where the woman worked “researches dangerous pathogens,” including plague in parts of Siberia, where the disease “occurs naturally in wild animals.”
He said Russian officials had not yet asked WHO experts to travel to Russia and that Russian authorities were “investigating whether pneumonic plague caused her death.”
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Lindmeier said Russian authorities later told the World Health Organization that no cases of plague had been recorded in Irkutsk.
“According to authorities, the woman’s condition initially presented with a typical acute respiratory viral infection,” he said. “No cases of plague or other high-threat pathogens have been identified.”
Trump, Rubio comment on case
U.S. President Trump said on Monday that he was watching the situation with concern and that the United States was willing to help, although he said he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the case.
Asked about Trump’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday that “it is always very good to provide mutual assistance.” He did not elaborate further, deferring to Rospotrebnadzor.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russian authorities to share more information.
“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know,” he told a news conference in Iceland.
“We encourage Russia to be more transparent and share more information with the world,” Rubio said, adding that so far the situation has been “pretty limited, but hopefully that will change in the coming hours and days.”
Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, said “plague has a long history and is still present in many parts of the world, including Russia,” although its potential is limited due to modern living conditions and the use of antibiotics.
Dr. Glenn Waterman of MedStar Hospital Center in Washington said the bacteria that caused plague did not “travel very far” and that a person “literally needed to be face-to-face with an infected person” to contract pneumonic plague.
He added: “The possibility of this bacterium becoming widespread in Russia and then spreading to the United States will not happen because this bacterium does not spread easily and we have antibiotics to stop it from spreading.”
Associated Press writers Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Matthew Lee in Reykjavik, Iceland, contributed to this report.
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