‘No epidemic risks’: Russia says 5,000 tests found no dangerous pathogens, dismisses public threat in plague case

Russia’s health agency said Wednesday that there were “no epidemic risks” for the public after reports that a laboratory technician in Siberia had died from plague.

The statement came as Russia faced calls from the United States, the European Union and the World Health Organisation for more information and greater transparency over the reported death.

What happened at the Siberia lab?

Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported last Friday that a 28-year-old woman working at a plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region had died from the disease.

The report said she may have contracted the infection after a test tube broke at the laboratory.

However, Russian authorities have rejected the report, saying the woman died of pneumonia and that the cause of her death was “undetermined”.

Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region was calm.

“The sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region... is calm,” the agency said, adding that “there are no epidemic risks for the population”.

It said investigations had found “no emergencies” and that the laboratory had followed “proper control when working with pathogenic microorganisms”.

Russia says tests found no dangerous pathogens

Rospotrebnadzor said more than 90 per cent of people who had contact with the woman had completed medical observation.

“No health disorders associated with infectious pathology were detected,” the agency said.

It added that the results of almost 5,000 laboratory tests had not found “any dangerous pathogenic microorganisms”.

The agency also said the woman had been “vaccinated and had immunity to dangerous infections with which she worked”.

Despite saying there was no epidemic risk, Rospotrebnadzor said it had introduced “anti-epidemic measures” as a precaution and in accordance with sanitary legislation.

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US, EU and WHO seek more information

The United States has asked Russia for additional information about the reported death. A State Department spokesperson said Washington was “in official communication with other countries around the world to share information.”

The European Union also called on Russia to “share timely and transparent reporting” about the death of the laboratory technician.

The World Health Organisation said Wednesday that it wanted more information from Russia about the death and reports of “a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause”.

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said full transparency was needed to properly assess the public health risk.