We are monitoring it closely: Rubio reacts to plague case in Russia
Photo: Marco Rubio (Getty Images)
A suspected case of plague infection has been reported at a laboratory in Russia, raising concerns about the risk of the infection spreading. The US is closely monitoring the situation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
According to him, Washington currently has only the information officially provided by the Russian side. According to that information, an employee at one of the laboratories was infected.
"It seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected, and there’s concern that it could have spread, at least internally," Rubio said.
He added that although transportation links between the US and Russia are currently very limited, such an infection could escape and spread quickly.
"So we’re watching and monitoring it closely. I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it. And we’re doing that," he stressed.
What happened
Earlier, media reports said that on September 25, 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked at a research institute specializing in plague control in Russia's Irkutsk region, broke a test tube containing the bacteria that causes pneumonic plague.
After that, on September 29, the woman was hospitalized with symptoms of severe pneumonia. She died on the night of October 2.
Following her death, authorities imposed quarantine at several medical facilities in the region, while around 200 people who had been in contact with Shipilova were placed under medical observation.
Irkutsk Region Governor Igor Kobzev said none of them had shown signs of the disease and that their test results were negative.
At the same time, Shipilova's possible plague infection has not been officially confirmed. Reports say she had pneumonia of unknown origin, while subsequent tests did not detect the pathogen.
In addition, media reports say Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been accused of concealing information about a possible plague outbreak in the Irkutsk region.
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