Kremlin seeks to play down death of woman who contracted 'pneumonia of an unknown cause'
By Thomas Grove
Russian authorities are investigating the death of a woman who worked at a Siberian institute for infectious diseases and have placed her contacts under close medical observation as they try to determine how she died.
The worker at the Antiplague Scientific Research Institute in Irkutsk province died Friday after contracting "pneumonia of an unknown cause," the region's governor, Igor Kobzev, said Monday.
Russian authorities have taken steps to prevent the spread of an infectious disease since the worker's death. The mayor of the town of Shelekhov, home to around 40,000 people and where the patient was hospitalized, said the local hospital had been placed under quarantine and was no longer accepting patients. The nearby Irkutsk Aluminum Factory, which is located in the same town and employs more than 2,000 people, has imposed a masking mandate. Russia's Surgeon General Anna Popova held an emergency meeting with the Irkutsk antiepidemiological commission on Friday.
On Monday, the Kremlin sought to play down concerns about the potential spread of an infectious disease. Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the issue was being handled by the federal consumer-protection agency, which oversees the institute.
"The dangerous infection that was found in Irkutsk province is most likely not plague, but even in case it is, the disease won't spread in Russia, and preventive measures and the method of treatment is well-known," said the agency's chief Gennady Onishchenko, who added that the region's "sanitary-epidemiological situation" was stable.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. is monitoring the incident. "I don't think it's cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and cause to just keep an eye on it," he said on a trip to Iceland on Monday. President Trump told reporters the U.S. was "looking at it very strongly." He said he hasn't been in contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin but that the U.S. was willing to help.
"I hate to see them having it, it's a rough disease," Trump said. "That's a disease we used to be able to control but somehow those microbes have gotten stronger and smarter, they're like an army."
Fears were raised when the governor of neighboring Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, described the woman as having "died possibly from plague."
The lack of clarity on the death has aggravated the mistrust of Russian health authorities that has lingered since the Covid-19 pandemic, when critics accused the government of suppressing the number of official deaths caused by the disease.
Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk, said that specialists had carried out extensive laboratory analyses of the woman's body, and that "their results show that no microorganisms connected to her professional activities were found."
"I understand that the events have triggered a number of very different theories among residents or the region and beyond," said Kobzev. "It's important that in recent days there have been no recorded instances of other co-workers of the Antiplague Institute seeking medical help."
The bacterium Yersinia pestis, which can cause pneumonic and bubonic plagues, has been identified from time to time in Siberia, linked to exposure to vermin. The antiplague institute in Irkutsk was established in 1934, under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, to control cases of plague, its website says. Since then, it has conducted work to monitor, research and develop treatment for other serious infectious diseases, including cholera, anthrax and brucellosis.
The institute took part in a bilateral training exercise with China earlier this year against the potential outbreak of an infectious disease.
In 2016, a boy was diagnosed with a strand of plague after handling a marmot in Russia's Altai region. He was treated and survived.
Melting permafrost has also been known to release dormant pathogens, which have previously affected the Russian reindeer population.
Dr. Ashish K. Jha, an American scientist and biosecurity expert, said Russia owed the world transparency over the incident.
"We need to understand exactly what has happened," he wrote on X. "And we have to assume we may not know the full truth. And have to act to build up our biodefense accordingly."