Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation in Russia’s Irkutsk region in eastern Siberia following suspected exposure to plague, according to local media reports.
The reports said 189 people were being monitored after an employee of an anti-plague research institute in Irkutsk fell ill. Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighbouring Republic of Buryatia, said the woman had died from an unspecified form of plague.
However, Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said on Sunday that the employee had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology.”
The agency said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, as well as in the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov, remained stable.
Rospotrebnadzor added that expanded testing had not detected microorganisms associated with the employee’s work.
The development followed local media reports that a 27-year-old employee at the anti-plague institute had fallen ill with suspected pneumonic plague after returning from a work trip to Buryatia, where an outbreak had reportedly been detected near the border with Mongolia.
Meanwhile, the White House is monitoring reports of the suspected case and related quarantines in Russia, Axios reported on Sunday, citing a Trump administration official. The official said the administration was “aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options.”
Boluwatife Enome
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