The United States is monitoring the death of a laboratory worker in Russia that local officials suspect may have been caused by pneumonic plague, the most dangerous form of the disease.
The worker, a 28 year old woman, worked at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, a town in Russia’s Irkutsk region in southern Siberia. The institute studies plague and other dangerous infections.
Russia has not confirmed that she died of plague. Rospotrebnadzor, the country’s public health agency, said the worker’s illness was pneumonia with an unknown cause. The plague suspicion came from Alexei Tsydenov, the head of Buryatia, a region next to Irkutsk. On Friday, he wrote on Telegram that the woman may have died of plague, while assuring Buryatia residents that she had not visited their region and that there were no outbreaks there.
Health authorities in Irkutsk have since launched anti-epidemic measures. Sources told Radio Free Europe that more than 60 staff members at the institute have been isolated, though Russian officials have not publicly confirmed that number.
In Washington, a State Department spokesperson said the department was aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague and was monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and other agencies. The department is also urging Moscow to share accurate information quickly. The CDC said in a statement Sunday that it is watching the situation as well.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio addressed it Monday before leaving for a trip to Europe. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm,” he said, adding that the situation is worth keeping an eye on.
Plague is caused by bacteria that are usually carried by rodents and spread to people through flea bites. Pneumonic plague is the form that infects the lungs, and it is the only form that can spread from person to person through the air, when someone who is sick coughs. Symptoms can include fever, headache, weakness and a fast developing pneumonia with chest pain and coughing, and they can show up within a day of exposure.
The good news is that it is treatable. The CDC says plague can be cured with common antibiotics, especially when treatment starts early. Without quick treatment, pneumonic plague can be deadly.
Plague still exists in many parts of the world, including the United States. The CDC reports an average of about seven human cases here each year, most of them in rural parts of the West, and the risk to the public remains low.
