How Russia and the world are responding to a possible case of pneumonic plague after lab worker dies

GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Wednesday that Russian authorities have reported no case of plague in a Siberian region where a woman who worked at a laboratory that studies the disease died of pneumonia last week.

The comments from Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus come a day after WHO said a possible case of pneumonic plague in Russia presents a “very low” risk outside the country as investigators looked into what caused the woman’s death Friday.

The U.N. health agency says it has been in contact with Russian authorities following the death of the staffer at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. The Russian authorities cited a “typical” acute respiratory viral infection.

The case and the investigation have revived memories of the COVID-19 pandemic and allegations the coronavirus may have emerged at a Chinese lab. WHO has not provided a definitive answer to how the pandemic began.

Here’s what to know about the case and how experts are mobilizing after her death:

Pneumonic plague is a form of the disease that affects the lungs

The incubation period for pneumonic plague — the most virulent form of the disease — can be as short as 24 hours, according to WHO. The lung-based illness is a less common but severe form of plague that can spread between people via respiratory particles.

If untreated, the illness can be fatal, but recovery rates are high if detected and treated in time, WHO says. Symptoms include shortness of breath and coughing, often involving the coughing up of blood.

The more common form of plague — bubonic plague — is caused by the bite of an infected flea, and can develop into open sores filled with pus.

Pneumonia is a form of acute respiratory infection that is mostly caused by viruses or bacteria, and is spread generally through contact with infected people or from airborne droplets.

What Russian officials are saying about the case

Through an international health alert system, Russian health officials on Tuesday said a full range of preventive measures had been carried out — including tracing of the deceased woman’s contacts, medical monitoring and lab tests.

“Test results showed no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts,” said the note from Russian authorities, which was relayed to The Associated Press by WHO.

“Based on available data, laboratory test results, and health status, medical monitoring for 100% of the contacts has now been concluded,” it said. “The epidemiological situation is stable and remains under monitoring.”

The woman died at a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside the city of Irkutsk, and its mayor said the hospital was placed under quarantine. The top officials from Russia’s national public health watchdog traveled to the region Friday.

On Monday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov advised the public to follow official statements from the watchdog agency, Rospotrebnadzor, rather than “rumors or speculation.”

WHO has mobilized its own experts to look into the case

The Geneva-based health agency says the institute where the woman worked studies “dangerous pathogens” and that plague occurs naturally in wild animals in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

“Initial media reports suggested pneumonic plague following an alleged accidental laboratory exposure,” Tedros noted in the WHO statement Wednesday.

As part of international health regulations, WHO asked Russia to help clarify the situation and, in response, “the Russian health authorities reported that no case of plague had recently been registered in Irkutsk oblast,” he said.

WHO noted media reports about a second employee of the institute “with pneumonia of undetermined cause.”

On Tuesday, WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Russian authorities had attributed the woman’s illness to “a typical acute respiratory viral infection.”

“The initial risk assessment from the information available estimates that the risk to be moderate-to-low for Irkutsk; a low risk for the Russian Federation as a whole; and very low for the WHO European region,” he told a regular U.N. briefing in Geneva.

The track record on global cooperation has been patchy

Many countries respect the International Health Regulations, WHO’s rulebook for global cooperation, but sometimes countries don’t follow its rules even though it is legally binding in theory. WHO has no power to force countries to act.

WHO last year helped shepherd through passage of a draft pandemic treaty, but it’s still not fully operable because of disagreements over how much poorer countries will share pathogens and how much richer countries will share diagnostic tools, vaccines and treatments.

Russia repeatedly sought but failed to obtain WHO authorization for its Sputnik vaccine against the coronavirus.

Not all countries are happy or willing to allow independent WHO experts to visit. China did allow in WHO teams during the COVID pandemic, but not as often or quickly as the U.N. health agency would have liked.