US President Donald Trump says his administration is paying close attention to the death of a young lab technician at a plague research facility in Siberia, though he has not personally raised the matter with the Kremlin. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Washington was monitoring the situation “closely” because of fears it could involve pneumonic plague, a highly contagious form of the disease, but stressed there was no reason for public alarm yet.
Russian officials in the Irkutsk region listed the cause of death as pneumonia of unknown origin, saying tests found no trace of the pathogen linked to the woman’s work in her biological samples. Unverified reports suggest she may have broken a test tube containing the bacteria or became infected during a field trip to Buryatia, a region near Mongolia where plague occurs naturally in wild rodent populations such as marmots.
Russian authorities say nearly 200 people who had contact with the woman are being monitored as a precaution, though no other illnesses linked to the lab have been reported. The Kremlin has urged the public to trust official statements rather than rumors.
Experts note that pneumonic plague, caused by the same bacterium responsible for the medieval Black Death, can spread between people and is almost always fatal without antibiotic treatment — though it remains treatable if caught early. One scientist acknowledged, when asked, that such research could theoretically have military applications, but cautioned against jumping to conclusions.
For the full story, you can read the original report from the BBC.
Source: US 'watching closely' after plague researcher dies in Russia (feeds.bbci.co.uk).
Image: Alexandra E Rust, BY 2.0 (via Openverse).