The World Health Organization said Tuesday it has found no evidence that plague is spreading following a suspected lab leak in Irkutsk, but Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus made clear that assessment rests almost entirely on information supplied by Russian authorities, information he suggested has not been as complete as the WHO would like.
According to Tedros, Russian health officials responded to a WHO verification request under the International Health Regulations by reporting that no new case of plague has been registered in Irkutsk oblast. They said an epidemiological investigation was carried out, preventive and control measures were put in place, and everyone identified as a contact was placed under medical observation and tested. No high-threat pathogens turned up among those contacts, and their observation period has now concluded, the Russians told the WHO.
The WHO says it remains in touch with Russian health authorities and has offered technical support, but it has also asked Moscow to clarify what caused the severe pneumonia at the center of the case, identify the pathogen that triggered the public health response, and address media reports of a second employee suffering from pneumonia of undetermined cause.
Tedros said “timely, complete, and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations” is essential to an accurate assessment of potential public health risks.
On the ground in Irkutsk, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s public health watchdog, said Wednesday it is scaling back its precautionary measures after finding no additional plague infections beyond the original patient, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, a lab worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
Rospotrebnadzor said about 90 percent of the roughly 200 people who were placed under quarantine and observation after contact with Shipilova have now been released, and nearly five thousand laboratory tests have turned up no further cases.
In a striking detail, the agency said Shipilova had been properly vaccinated against all the pathogens handled at the institute and should have been immune to the dangerous infections she worked with — yet she became severely ill and died in a public hospital last week.
Tedros said Wednesday the WHO has specifically asked Russian officials to clarify the reports, carried by some Russian media outlets, of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.
The Kremlin pushed back on that report. “The media reports a great deal,” spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, adding that “the vast majority of what the media is reporting regarding this situation is false information,” and that only official Rospotrebnadzor statements should be trusted.
Peskov also dismissed comments from U.S. President Donald Trump, who said Wednesday he was planning to call Russian President Vladimir Putin about the Irkutsk situation, “probably” on Thursday. “So far, we are in very deep discussions,” Trump said. Peskov said no such call had been scheduled, and maintained that Russia’s reporting to the WHO fully meets international standards.
