WHO says no plague case registered after Russian lab worker’s death
The WHO says the lack of a confirmed diagnosis remains a key uncertainty, with no sign of ongoing transmission.
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The WHO says the lack of a confirmed diagnosis remains a key uncertainty, with no sign of ongoing transmission.
Baylor College of Medicine Tropical Medicine Expert Dr. Peter Hotez tells Bloomberg This Weekend that the unexplained death of a researcher at a Russian plague institute raises questions about a possible pneumonic plague infection, although there is no evidence of a wider outbreak or biological weapons activity. Speaking with hosts David Gura and Christina Ruffini, Hotez calls for an independent World Health Organization investigation and warns that the US lacks adequate plague vaccine preparedness. (Source: Bloomberg)
Plague is one of history’s most feared diseases, responsible for pandemics that killed tens of millions of people. Today, human cases are rare and can usually be treated with antibiotics. A suspected case of pneumonic plague in Siberia has renewed attention on the disease after a young worker at a Russian institute that studies plague and other dangerous infections died of severe pneumonia. Russian authorities told the World Health Organization that no case of plague has been recorded in the region. Still, the circumstances of the woman’s death and the precautions taken afterward have prompted international scrutiny, with the WHO seeking more information from Russia. We speak with Dr. Amesh Aldaja, Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. (Source: Bloomberg)
Dozens of people have been quarantined over a suspected case of the plague in Russia’s Siberia.
The US says it is monitoring the case of a lab technician who died at a plague research centre in Siberia.
Moscow on Monday downplayed reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, stressing that post-mortem tests had not detected the disease, while Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation. Reports on Friday that plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, sparked alarm. FRANCE 24's August Hakansson reports.
A Russian agency links the lab worker's death to 'pneumonia of unknown' origin.