World Health Organization Says No Sign of Plague Spreading in Russia
World Health Organization (W.H.O.) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Tuesday that his agency has seen no evidence of plague spreading after a suspected lab leak incident in Siberia, although he said this assessment was highly dependent on information from Russian authorities, and he hinted they have been less forthcoming than W.H.O. would prefer.
In fact, Tedros’ statement primarily repeated what Russian officials have told him:
In response to W.H.O.’s verification request under the International Health Regulations, the Russian health authorities reported that no case of plague had recently been registered in Irkutsk oblast. They informed W.H.O. that an epidemiological investigation had been conducted, preventive and control measures implemented, and identified contacts placed under medical observation and tested. They reported that no high-threat pathogens had been detected among the contacts and that medical observation of all identified contacts had been completed.
W.H.O. has remained in contact with the Russian health authorities and has offered technical support. W.H.O. has requested further information to clarify the cause of the severe pneumonia, the pathogen that prompted the public health measures, and media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.
Tedros concluded by emphasizing that “timely, complete, and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations” is essential to providing “an accurate assessment of potential public health risks.”
Russian health agency Rospotrebnadzor said on Wednesday it was winding down its precautionary measures in the Irkutsk region after finding no additional cases of plague infection beyond the original victim, identified as 28-year-old lab worker Daria Shipilova, who was employed at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
Rospotrebnadzor said 90 percent of the roughly 200 people placed under observation and quarantine after coming into contact with Shipilova have been released, and almost five thousand laboratory tests have discovered no additional infections.
On a more ominous note, the agency said in response to international criticism of the case that Shipilova had been appropriately vaccinated against all of the pathogens kept at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, and should have been “immune to the dangerous infections with which she worked” — and yet she still became severely ill and died in a public hospital last week.
Tedros said on Wednesday that W.H.O. has asked Russian officials for more details about “reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause” that have been carried by some Russian media outlets.
The Kremlin appeared to dismiss this report on Wednesday. “The media reports a great deal,” scoffed spokesman Dmitry Peskov.
“The vast majority of what the media is reporting regarding this situation is false information,” he said, insisting that only official statements from Rospotrebnadzor could be trusted.
Peksov also dismissed a comment from President Donald Trump who said on Wednesday he was planning a phone call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the Irkutsk situation, “probably” on Thursday.
“So far, we are in very deep discussions,” Trump said.
Peskov said no such phone call between the U.S. and Russian presidents had been scheduled, and he insisted that all of Russia’s reporting to the W.H.O. was fully in line with international standards.
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