Trump Says US Will Help Russia After Plague Death in Siberia

(Bloomberg) -- President Donald Trump said the US was looking into a suspected plague case in Russia following the death of a worker at a laboratory and would offer authorities there assistance.

"We're looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it," Trump told reporters Monday. "They call it pneumonia. And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger, disproportionately, but we'll help them," Trump said. "We'll help them as much as we can."

The president's comments follow the death of a worker at an anti-plague research institute in Russia's Siberian region of Irkutsk that led to almost 200 contacts reportedly being placed under observation.

The 28-year-old laboratory worker died last week after developing severe pneumonia. Russian media reported that she might have been exposed to the bacterium that causes pneumonic plague after breaking a test tube at the institute. Russia's public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, has disputed that account.

The woman was diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause, and extensive testing found no microorganisms associated with her work, Interfax cited the agency as saying. An expert commission sent to the institute found no accidents involving pathogenic microorganisms, confirming the findings of safety monitors, it said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday that he did not think the case was "cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it — and we're doing that." Rubio said the administration is aware of the information provided by the Russian government.

Almost 200 people who may have had contact with the woman were placed under medical observation, the Moscow Times reported. Rospotrebnadzor said contacts were undergoing daily laboratory testing and that two cases of Covid-19 and two rhinovirus infections had been detected, according to Interfax. It said no other infectious diseases had been found and none of the contacts had developed signs of infectious illness.

The epidemiological situation remained stable, Axios reported Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev as saying. Russian authorities haven't confirmed that the woman had plague.