The White House is monitoring reports of a suspected plague case and a related quarantines in Russia, a Trump administration official told Axios on Sunday.
Russian health authorities have taken precautionary measures in response to the death of a woman who worked at an anti-plague research factility, but have not confirmed that she contracted plague.
The Trump administration "is aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options," the administration official said.
On Sept. 25, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, who worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region, broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen, local reports said.
Shipilova was admitted to a hospital on Sept. 29 with symptoms of severe pneumonia and died overnight between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.
After her death, authorities imposed quarantines at several medical facilities in the region and placed nearly 200 people who had come into contact with Shiplova under medical observation.
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev said those being monitored showed no signs of illness and had tested negative.
Russian media reports suggested Shipilova may have contracted pneumonic plague, but health authorities have not confirmed the diagnosis.
Russia's public health agency said Shipilova had "pneumonia of unknown etiology" and that further testing found no microorganisms linked to her work. The agency said the epidemiological situation in the region remains stable.
Zoom out: Plague is a potentially life-threatening bacterial disease but can be cured with antibiotics when treated promptly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
White House spokespeople referred questions to the State Department, which did not respond to a request for comment.
Posted by John3262005
35 Comments
May be relevant
Crazy how the Trump administration is monitoring a suspected plague outbreak in Russia
But nothing much for measles or the food outbreaks
The historical record shows poor correlation between Trump’s electoral record and the occurrence of plagues.
Is it expected to be weaponized strains?
Aren’t there occasional plague outbreaks in the US due to flea-infested prairie dog colonies?
RFK Jr: hold my beer
The warhammer-ification of Russia continues
>On Sept. 25, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, who worked at an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region, broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen, local reports said.
>Shipilova was admitted to a hospital on Sept. 29 with symptoms of severe pneumonia and died overnight between Oct. 1 and Oct. 2.
Is it Plague or The Plague?
Isn’t one of the biggest reasons behind “Ai being the end of humanity” some unscrupulous actor bioengineering a biological weapon that can kill us all with Ai assistance?
[removed]
>scoop
Wasn’t it on People first
If this spreads if Trump going to call it the ‘Russia virus’?
She ate of the forbidden cube.
Oh. Thank goodness.
I was beginning to feel hopeful about 2027.
Glad that’s sorted.
[removed]
Crazy how when there’s an actual lab leak we know about it because the people working in the labs take their responsibility to report things seriously. And from an authoritarian country with a ton of control of internal information.
But hopefully this is the last time we all read an article about this and it’s quickly under control.
[removed]
[removed]
[removed]
Golly gee not again
[removed]
>Zoom out: Plague is a potentially life-threatening bacterial disease but can be cured with antibiotics when treated promptly, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
If she broke a test tube with it, surely they would have put her on anti biotic right away right? Or what happened where she didnt get treated?
Why did Ukraine do this
Putin is definitely bringing that comically long table back.
in 541 AD, God punished emperor Justinian’s warmongering and ambitions of imperial restoration
Putin had 3 doors 1 and 2 were not workable, this is door 3
we knew something big between now and 2030 this is it, money has reached its end here we go and ppl laughed at me for being a prepper
What in the Resident Evil 2002 is this scenario now.
It is ironic for all of the right wing conspiracies about Ukrainian biolabs, it is the Russians who are actually experiencing a lab leak outbreak.
I’m curious why there wouldn’t be sufficient safety measures in place to prevent this from happening. Surely she should have been wearing appropriately heavy duty PPE when directly handling such a serious pathogen. I feel like safety risks should be controllable even in the case of apparent human error like this.
I’m not familiar with bio lab protocols but the way I visualize it, she’d be fully suited up and would simply leave the site of the accident to a quarantine area while both the site of the accident and quarantine area get thoroughly/remotely disinfected. Is this not the case?
Idk why the internet is very consistent with this must be Covid pt 2. The plague is a known disease, has a high morbidity and mortality rate (lower r0), and Irkutsk isn’t the megacity that Wuhan is.
Very sad though