US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has urged Russia to provide more information about the death of a 28-year-old laboratory worker at a plague research centre in Siberia, as concerns and speculation continue over the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The woman, identified by Russian media as Darya Shipilova, reportedly fell ill days before her death, prompting authorities to monitor people who had come into contact with her. Russian officials, however, have maintained that no case of pneumonic plague has been recorded in the affected area and that all identified contacts have so far tested negative and shown no symptoms.
Speaking to reporters during a visit to Iceland, Rubio said the United States was closely monitoring the situation and urged Moscow to provide greater transparency about the case.
“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” Rubio said, adding that Washington was monitoring developments “hour by hour.”
Reports first emerged on Friday that nearly 200 people in Siberia’s Irkutsk region had been placed under observation following the woman’s death.
Unconfirmed reports had suggested that Shipilova may have become ill after breaking a test tube containing the plague pathogen or following a field trip to an area where the disease occurs naturally among wild rodents. Russian authorities have rejected or played down those reports.
Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said the woman died from “pneumonia of an undetermined etiology.” In a statement read by World Health Organization spokesman Christian Lindmeier on Tuesday, Russia also said that no case of the disease had been recorded in Irkutsk.
The statement said all people who had contact with the deceased had been identified and were being monitored for possible symptoms, adding that none had so far shown signs of illness.
The development has nevertheless triggered a public exchange between Moscow and Washington over the possible health implications of the incident and whether there is any risk of the disease spreading beyond Russia.
Rubio said the United States had measures available to assist Russia should the situation prove more serious than currently reported.
Rospotrebnadzor subsequently offered assistance to Washington, saying Russia was prepared to help the United States respond to outbreaks of infectious diseases. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov described the US offer of assistance as positive, saying it was a “good thing when mutual assistance is offered.”
US President Donald Trump also said his administration was watching the case closely.
According to reports, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the State Department and the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response are involved in assessing the situation and determining an appropriate response.
Peskov, when asked about the circumstances surrounding the death, referred to the findings released by Rospotrebnadzor.
Meanwhile, the Russian health watchdog has moved to counter what it described as misinformation circulating online. The agency said a document claiming that special anti-plague measures had been introduced was not issued by official authorities and was false.
“We wish to clarify that the document and information in question do not originate from official sources and are untrue,” Rospotrebnadzor said in a statement posted on Telegram.
The concern surrounding the incident stems partly from the nature of the bacterium involved. Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that causes plague, remains present in some parts of the world, including among wild rodents such as marmots in regions of Siberia.
The disease caused one of history’s deadliest pandemics, the Black Death, which killed a substantial proportion of Europe’s population in the 14th century. Russia established the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East more than a century ago in response to plague outbreaks in the region.
Dr Simon Clarke, an associate professor of cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, said pneumonic plague can be extremely serious if left untreated but can be treated effectively with antibiotics when diagnosed promptly.
He noted that pneumonic plague can spread from person to person, which explains the concern surrounding any suspected case. However, he cautioned against assuming that the incident would necessarily lead to widespread restrictions or a situation similar to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Clarke stressed that although plague is often viewed as a disease of the distant past, Yersinia pestis remains a public health threat and continued research is necessary to understand and control it.
For now, Russian authorities maintain that there is no confirmed pneumonic plague outbreak in Irkutsk, while international health and security officials continue to monitor the case and await further information from Moscow.
