The United States is monitoring the death of a Russian laboratory technician who worked at the Anti‑Plague Institute of Siberia, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday.
Rubio expressed concern that the incident could have led to the spread of pneumonic plague, but stressed that there was no cause for alarm at this point. The Russian governor said the cause of death was "pneumonia of undetermined etiology" and that none of the staff’s biological samples tested positive for any pathogen linked to her work.
Unconfirmed reports had suggested the woman fell ill either after breaking a test tube containing the pathogen or following a field trip to the Buryatia region on the border with Mongolia, where plague is naturally carried by rodents such as marmots.
“It seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected and there’s concern that that, you know, could have spread, at least internally… If something like that gets out, it can quickly spread. So we’re watching and monitoring it closely.”
—Marco Rubio
The Anti‑Plague Institute was founded over a century ago after a 1920s outbreak and continues to conduct research on Yersinia pestis, the bacterium that caused the Black Death. Dr. Simon Clarke of the University of Reading noted that while pneumonic plague can be fatal if untreated, it is curable with antibiotics, and that concerns about biowarfare are possible but likely outweighed by routine scientific study.
According to Rospotrebnadzor, a biological safety team inspected the facility and found no emergency situation, and no other staff members sought medical attention after the death. Russian police have placed nearly 200 contacts under observation as a precaution.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urged people not to “listen to various rumours” but to rely on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor. The incident remains a focus for international health surveillance, but experts remain confident that with proper protocols the risk of a broader outbreak remains low.
