The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it is monitoring reports of a 28-year-old researcher who died of a “pneumonia of unknown etiology” in Russia but confirmed there is “no indication of a broader threat” from her death to the United States.
The reports of the death of Daria Shipilova, a lab technician at Russia’s Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, have sparked international concern after nearly 200 Russians were placed in quarantine in response to a public health lockdown. The concerns have pushed Trump administration officials to respond, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying Monday it is not a cause for “alarm” but rather a “cause for focus.”
The CDC largely echoed Rubio’s message in the agency’s first response to the outbreak on Tuesday, saying the U.S. government is coordinating “to assess developments as additional information becomes available.”
“At this time, there is no indication of a broader threat to the United States, but CDC and our interagency partners are prepared and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the CDC said in a statement.
Shipilova’s exposure and death occurred in the Irkutsk Oblast region of Siberia, with the region’s governor, Igor Kobzev, saying that no new workers from the lab have sought medical attention and urging the public to remain calm over the situation.
“The sanitary and epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and the Shelekhov district is currently stable,” Kobzev said on Monday. “The situation remains under our control and under the control of the experts.”
The CDC addressed concerns over the pneumonic plague in its Monday statement, calling it “a serious bacterial disease that is treatable with antibiotics, particularly when recognized and treated early.”
“Pneumonic plague can spread person-to-person through respiratory droplets during close contact, which is why rapid identification and treatment of infected individuals, and monitoring of potentially exposed individuals, are important public health measures,” the CDC statement read.
RUSSIAN RESEARCHER WHO STUDIED PLAGUE DIED OF MYSTERIOUS ILLNESS: WHAT TO KNOW
President Donald Trump addressed the possible outbreak on Monday, calling the plague a “rough disease” and confirming Monday that he had not yet spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation.
“We’ll help anybody that has that kind of a problem,” Trump said. “We’ll always be willing to help.”