The World Health Organization said Tuesday that Russian authorities had reported no confirmed cases of plague in the Siberian Irkutsk Oblast, following the death of a laboratory worker whose illness had initially raised concerns about possible pneumonic plague.
The WHO said Russia responded to a request for information made under the International Health Regulations but has not yet identified the pathogen that caused the woman’s death.
“WHO is aware of media reports that a laboratory worker in Irkutsk oblast, in the Russian Federation, died of suspected pneumonic plague,” the agency said, noting that nearly 200 people who had been in contact with her were reportedly placed under medical observation and tested.
The WHO said it requested additional information from Russian authorities on Oct. 3 to assess the potential public-health risk. Russian officials responded on Oct. 6, saying the woman’s illness had initially appeared to be a typical acute respiratory viral infection and that no cases of plague had been recorded in Irkutsk, either involving the woman or anyone else.
The agency said it had subsequently requested information on which pneumonia-causing pathogen led to the woman’s death.
The laboratory worker, a 28-year-old woman, died at a hospital in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk. Local authorities said preventive measures had been implemented, including contact tracing, medical monitoring and laboratory testing.
According to information relayed to The Associated Press by the WHO, Russian authorities said test results showed no dangerous infectious disease pathogens among the woman’s contacts.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said at a UN briefing that the institute where the woman worked conducts research on dangerous pathogens, including plague, which occurs naturally among wild animals in parts of Siberia.
Russian officials have not requested that WHO experts travel to the country, Lindmeier said. The WHO currently assesses the health risk as moderate to low in the Irkutsk region, low for Russia as a whole, and very low for the WHO European region.
Irkutsk Oblast Governor Igor Kobzev previously described the illness as a “particularly dangerous infection” and later referred to it as pneumonia of unknown etiology, without identifying the pathogen.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said authorities were closely monitoring the situation and urged Russia to provide more information.
“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know,” Rubio said during a news conference in Iceland.
The Public Health Agency of Canada has also said that no risk to Canada has been identified and that it is monitoring developments.
