President Donald Trump says the United States is prepared to offer support to Russia following a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak in Siberia. Speaking on Monday, Trump said he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation but that the US was looking at it “very strongly.”
“It’s a disease we used to be able to control,” Trump said. “Even with great advancement, the germs have really become relatively stronger than they were, and things that used to work on pneumonia don’t work anymore … anyone that has that kind of problem, we will help.”
The outbreak involves the death of a 28-year-old laboratory technician, identified by local media as Darya Shipilova, at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and are tracing her contacts. Official information has been limited: the consumer protection agency Rospotrebnadzor said she was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” and that testing found no microorganisms associated with her work. The governor of neighbouring Buryatia said in a Telegram post that a woman in Irkutsk had “died, maybe of the plague.”
The World Health Organization said based on unofficial information it had received, the “public health risk to the general population appears to be low.” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also played down the danger, saying, “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus.” A State Department official encouraged Russian authorities to “share accurate information quickly and openly.”
Pneumonic plague, caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, is highly infectious and can be fatal within one to six days if not treated early with antibiotics. It affects the lungs and spreads through airborne droplets.