WHO Presses Russia for Answers on 1 Suspected Plague Death and 200 Quarantines
Updated
Updated · The Guardian · Oct 12
WHO Presses Russia for Answers on 1 Suspected Plague Death and 200 Quarantines
3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Oct 12
Summary
WHO said Russia still has not provided key details on a 28-year-old Irkutsk lab worker who died on Oct. 2 after severe pneumonia, including whether the case was pneumonic plague and whether a second linked case existed.
About 200 contacts were quarantined even as Russian authorities denied plague, called it pneumonia of unknown origin and later said no high-threat pathogens were detected and monitoring had ended.
Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute studies plague, anthrax and cholera, making the death unusually sensitive amid long-running allegations that Russian facilities linked to Soviet-era programs may still support biological-weapons work.
WHO says Russia is obliged under international health regulations to share information on unusual events with cross-border risk, but the rules have no real enforcement mechanism; the US has also formally sought answers.