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President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday (October 6) that he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss reports of a potential plague outbreak in Russia. The reports originated from the death of a lab technician at an anti-plague research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia. Initially, Russian officials reported that the woman died from an unspecified disease, but later stated she died from pneumonia.
Speaking outside the White House, Trump mentioned that he expects to provide an update on the situation by Wednesday. Meanwhile, he is being briefed by intelligence agencies. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged Russia to be more transparent about the incident, emphasizing the importance of sharing information with the global community.
According to Yahoo News, the U.S. State Department sent Russia a demarche, warning that withholding details contradicts international health obligations. Russian authorities have denied imposing anti-plague measures and claimed that postmortem tests did not detect the disease.
The World Health Organization (WHO) received an update from Russia stating that no cases of the plague have been recorded in Irkutsk. An epidemiological investigation is ongoing, and medical monitoring for contacts of the deceased has concluded. The WHO assesses the risk as "moderate to low" for Irkutsk and "very low" for the European region.
President Trump has expressed readiness to assist Russia if needed. In response, Russian officials highlighted issues in the U.S., such as a worsened measles situation. An international conference on infectious diseases is scheduled in Irkutsk later this month, unrelated to the recent incident.