A 28-year-old scientist at a Russian institute for combating plague diseases in the Irkutsk region has died in the hospital in Shelekhov. The Russian epidemic control authority rules out a plague pathogen as the cause and speaks of pneumonia of unknown origin. The WHO is offering technical help and demanding information on the cause, on the pathogen and on reports of a second ill employee. Trump wants to phone Putin. Rumors about bioweapons are unsubstantiated.
Pneumonic plague can be transmitted from person to person. Transparency decides whether a local case stays local. The WHO can only examine what states report to it.
According to current knowledge there is no risk for Switzerland. Travelers should heed official advisories.
Moscow has given an explanation; without evidence of plague, alarmism is out of place.
A death at a plague lab, a possible second case and sparse information: the WHO's inquiry is justified.
Watch for one word: samples. As long as no independent labs see material, the case remains a question of trust. And that is in short supply between Moscow and the West.
NZZ · Tages-Anzeiger · SRF (Oct. 5–7) · Der Bund · Tiroler Tageszeitung (cites WHO) · Second case only in media reports
The death of a plague researcher in Siberia occupies the WHO in Geneva. Moscow says little
A young scientist at a Russian anti-plague institute has died of severe pneumonia. The World Health Organization offers help and demands information. Donald Trump wants to phone Vladimir Putin.
Reports of a possible plague case in Siberia have been circulating since Monday. On Wednesday the World Health Organization (WHO), based in Geneva, stepped in. According to reports by the NZZ, Tages-Anzeiger and SRF, it is offering Russia technical support and demanding clarification. The person who died was a 28-year-old scientist who worked at a state institute for combating plague diseases in the Irkutsk region. She died in the district hospital in the town of Shelekhov. The Russian epidemic control authority says the death was not caused by a plague pathogen and names pneumonia of unknown origin as the cause. So far this cannot be independently verified. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked for details on the cause of the pneumonia, on the pathogen and on media reports about a second employee of the institute who is also said to have fallen ill with pneumonia of unclear cause. WHO epidemiologist Maria Van Kerkhove said the organization does not know the cause of death. A second case is not officially confirmed. Russian state media have largely avoided the subject, according to reports. Two accounts therefore stand opposed: the terse statement from the authority in Moscow and a series of questions it leaves open. Which pathogen caused the pneumonia, whether contacts are being tested and whether the institute has restricted operations is not known.
Washington, too, is demanding transparency. According to the Tages-Anzeiger and SRF, President Trump announced he would phone Kremlin chief Putin over the suspected pneumonic plague. The US had already demanded answers on Monday. The NZZ reported rumors of a Russian bioweapons program; there is no evidence for them. Early media reports suspected that the pathogen had been released accidentally from the lab. That, too, is unconfirmed. Why the case nevertheless deserves attention has to do with the pathogen itself. Plague occurs naturally in wild rodents in parts of Siberia, Central Asia and other regions of the world, and is treated with antibiotics if detected early. Pneumonic plague is the most dangerous form because it can be transmitted from person to person. A lab that researches the pathogen must therefore observe strict safety rules. For Switzerland the question is not only a medical one. The WHO has its seat in Geneva, and the International Health Regulations oblige states to report unusual disease events quickly. Whether Russia shares samples, lab findings and contact lists is the real test. By Wednesday evening no information on this was available. It is worth keeping the levels apart. A natural plague case in a researcher would be tragic, but medically explicable. A lab accident would be a safety problem affecting other labs worldwide. A link to weapons research would be a political scandal. There is as yet no evidence for any of these explanations. The World Health Organization has therefore chosen the only means left to it: asking publicly.