After reports that a lab technician's death was possibly linked to pneumonic plague in Russia, U.S. officials said they are closely watching the situation.
The lab technician is a 28-year-old woman who worked at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, which was set up in the 1930s as an anti-plague body and later expanded its scope to other highly dangerous diseases. The woman died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of "unknown" origin, according to the public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor.
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters on Monday morning that Russian officials had shared some information about an infected lab worker and their concerns that other Russians could be affected.
"There's very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia, obviously, but … if something like that gets out, it could quickly spread," said Rubio, who added that he didn't think it was cause for alarm. "We're watching and monitoring it closely."

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MOSCOW, Oct 6 (Reuters) - Russia's health watchdog said on Tuesday that no cases of plague had been detected among people who had come ‌into contact with a Siberian plague institute laboratory worker who died ‌last week.
Authorities say the 28-year-old woman died on Friday from pneumonia of an as-yet unestablished origin, in a case that has prompted international concern, including from US President Donald Trump.
Rospotrebnadzor, the watchdog, said in a statement that no infectious diseases had been reported among the staff of the same plague research institute in Irkutsk over the past 10 ‌days and that extensive testing ⁠had found no microorganisms in the deceased woman's body linked to her work.
Elena Sofina, deputy head of the Shelekhov district near Irkutsk, ⁠where a local hospital was placed under quarantine, said that what she called "a dangerous diagnosis" had not been confirmed.
She added that 60% of those placed under quarantine as a precaution had already been released. Local media said around 200 people had previously ‌been quarantined.

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Russia on Monday sought to downplay reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, even as President Donald Trump said Washington was closely monitoring the situation and offered US help.
Reports on Friday that pneumonic 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.
"We're looking at it very strongly, we just heard about it," Trump told reporters at the White House when asked what Washington was going to do about the risk of plague coming from Russia.
"We'll help them, we'll help them as much as we can."
The Russian news outlet People of Baikal, citing unnamed sources close to the regional security services, said the dead woman may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.

#plague #Russia #reports #pneumonic

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The State Department is monitoring reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia and is urging Moscow to share accurate information quickly as details remain unconfirmed.
A State Department official told Fox News that the U.S. is aware of reports of a death in Irkutsk Oblast, a region in southeastern Siberia, and is watching the situation closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. The official stressed that many details have not been confirmed and called on Russian authorities to reveal what they know.
Former CIA officer Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital that the U.S. intelligence community is likely to be collecting all-source intelligence on the incident.
SCIENTISTS CRACK THE CODE ON NEW VACCINE FOR DEADLY PLAGUE BACTERIA

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The lines are growing at Russian gas stations -- and so is the frustration and uncertainty as several months of Ukrainian attacks have set oil refineries ablaze and choked supplies for motorists across the vast country.
Fuel rationing has been introduced in many regions, with hourslong queues of cars snaking beside roads. Social media videos show drivers aghast at the lines or swearing at empty gas pumps and rising prices. The mayor of the Siberian city of Irkutsk even ordered portable toilets brought in to accommodate those in line.
The fuel crisis — unprecedented for a nation that is one of the world's biggest energy producers — has brought Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine home to ordinary Russians like few other events in the war, now in its fifth year.
It drew a rare admission from President Vladimir Putin, who acknowledged that "problems persist for both motorists and businesses," and "there are still queues at petrol stations, and finding the right grade of petrol isn't always easy."
Putin insisted the shortages are "not critical" and "temporary."