U.S. Monitoring Reports of Suspected Plague Case in Russia

U.S. officials say they are monitoring reports of a suspected pneumonic plague case in Russia’s Irkutsk region, while Russian health authorities say tests did not identify the plague pathogen in a laboratory worker who died after developing pneumonia of unknown cause. The diagnosis remains unconfirmed in the available accounts. A State Department spokesperson said the United States was monitoring the reports with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. The spokesperson also urged Russian authorities to share information accurately and promptly. The White House is also monitoring the situation, according to reports cited in the supplied accounts. Russian public health agency Rospotrebnadzor said the worker had pneumonia of unknown etiology. It said subsequent tests did not identify the plague pathogen. Testing among people who had contact with the worker found cases of COVID-19 and rhinovirus, the agency said; the reports did not identify plague among those contacts. The worker was identified in Russian media reports as Darya Shipilova, a laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute.