Russia has dismissed media reports of a second suspected case of pneumonic plague in Siberia, while the World Health Organization (WHO) has urged Moscow to formally respond to inquiries regarding these reports. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov stated on Wednesday that "the vast majority of what the media is reporting regarding this situation is false information," in response to questions about the alleged second case. Peskov emphasized that information on the suspected cases should come from official statements by Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor.
The health regulator in Russia reported that no infections were detected among staff following the death of a worker at a plague institute who had pneumonia. The cause of her illness remains unknown, raising international concerns about a possible plague connection. On Sunday, Russia acknowledged the death of a 28-year-old woman employed at a plague research institute in Irkutsk, who was diagnosed with "pneumonia of unknown aetiology," which has sparked global concern over a suspected plague case.
The United States, the European Union, and the WHO have all called for transparency from Russia regarding the situation. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus urged Russia to clarify reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause at the Irkutsk institute. "We have received information from two media outlets, one of them is Russian," Tedros stated in a briefing on Wednesday, adding, "We asked Russia to respond to that."
WHO Director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management Maria Van Kerkhove noted that the agency does not know the "causative agent" behind the death in the first suspected case. "We don’t understand how she was infected," Van Kerkhove said, emphasizing the need for timely information and answers to follow-up questions.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) assessed the risk to the United States from the suspected pneumonic plague case as "extremely low." CDC Director Erica Schwartz mentioned on Wednesday that the agency is collaborating with various departments to monitor travelers from the area. The CDC operates a health station at New York City’s John F. Kennedy International Airport to screen travelers arriving from the Siberian region, where approximately 200 people travel to the United States annually, according to a Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson.
Direct flights between Russia and the United States have been suspended since the onset of the Ukraine war in 2022. Schwartz stated, "What we’re doing from a whole of government standpoint is we’re making sure that we understand exactly what that threat is." She added that there is currently no indication of a broader threat to the United States, but the CDC and its interagency partners will continue to monitor the situation closely.