WHO seeks answers after Siberian lab death sparks plague fears

WHO has asked Russia to share more details after a Siberian lab worker died from pneumonia of unknown origin. The case has raised global concern over possible plague exposure and renewed questions about official transparency.Image used for representational purposes onlyGeneva,Oct 8, 2026 00:42 ISTThe World Health Organisation has said it still does not know what caused the death of a lab worker in Siberia, and has asked Russia to share more information after the case triggered global concern over suspected pneumonic plague.Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said the agency did not know the "causative agent" behind the woman’s death on October 2. Russian authorities have said she had pneumonia of unknown origin and have not linked the case to pneumonic plague, while adding that no recent plague case has been reported in the Irkutsk region and about 200 contacts have been quarantined.In statements issued by Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, the case was described as pneumonia of "unknown" origin. The agency said extensive testing found no evidence that the illness was caused by any of the pathogens the woman worked with at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East."We don’t understand how she was infected," Van Kerkhove said. "We need information in a timely way. We need regular information. We need answers to the follow up of the questions that we have asked." She said WHO had put these questions to colleagues in Russia and added, "In fairness, they have responded. We’ve gone back with more questions." Her comments suggested WHO has more questions than answers about the situation at the institute, which studies plague in Siberia, where the disease occurs naturally in wild animals. Russian authorities have released little information about the case, and state television and other state-controlled national media have largely avoided the subject. Some state-backed outlets withdrew earlier reports.Rospotrebnadzor said on Sunday that the lab worker had been diagnosed with "pneumonia of unknown etiology". A state TV station in Irkutsk reported that she died on October 2 in a hospital in Shelekhov, just outside Irkutsk. Authorities quarantined the hospital and began monitoring her contacts. WHO said Russia had reported that the illness first appeared as a "typical" acute respiratory viral infection, while noting that pneumonia is common. WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Russian authorities had told the agency that no plague case had recently been reported in the Irkutsk region.US President Donald Trump said he would discuss the matter in a call with Russian President Vladimir Putin because Wednesday was Putin’s 74th birthday. "They’re sharing it a little bit with our people. We expect them to share it a lot with our people," Trump said, adding that the Russians claimed to have the situation under control. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said earlier on Wednesday that no Putin-Trump call had been set yet, but one could be organised quickly.Asked if the incident suggested plague might be developed as a bioweapon, Trump said, "We don’t think so. We’re going to find out soon enough, but we don’t think so." When asked if the situation was similar to dealing with China on COVID-19 during his first term, he said, "China didn’t say much and Russia is not saying much either, but they do say they have it very much under control."According to a Russian note relayed by WHO, health authorities carried out contact tracing, medical monitoring and laboratory tests, and found "no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts". WHO also cited media reports that a second employee had pneumonia of undetermined cause, though it did not specify the source immediately.Peskov referred all questions to Rospotrebnadzor, which has not mentioned suspected plague in its reports and did not respond to a request for comment sent by AP. In its latest statement on Tuesday, the agency said "the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is calm". It said authorities were completing a "complex of prophylactic measures and medical observation over contacts" and had so far found two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus. "No other infectious pathogens have been found among contacts," it said.Judy Twigg, a political science professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, said the response by Russian health authorities had been "swift and serious", but officials had also tried to play down the situation and "any statements that strayed from that party line... were edited or deleted within hours". "What we are watching is less a failure to respond than a failure of candor," she said in written comments.Vasily Vlassov, a professor in the department of healthcare administration and economics at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, said the measures taken appeared "sensible", with a focus on treating the sick, isolating them and their contacts, looking for new cases and carrying out final disinfection. But he said it was not clear whether more transparency was possible if officials handling the case did not yet have enough certainty, and "maybe, they still don’t".Vlassov said deceiving the public "always turns out to be harmful" and that distrust of Russia’s official account was "natural" and "almost inevitable". He added that in the Soviet era, outbreaks of dangerous infections were covered by "a thick veil of secrecy - people were told nothing".News outlet Lyudi Baikala identified the dead worker as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova and said she was first admitted to hospital with cold symptoms on September 29 and died three days later. It quoted colleagues as saying she was a highly qualified and diligent researcher, and that security rules at the facility were extremely strict. The report also cited neighbours as saying disinfection teams repeatedly cleaned her flat, leaving a strong antiseptic smell.Independent Russian outlet Glubina quoted Shipilova’s mother, who had earlier worked as a doctor, as describing her daughter as hard-working and dedicated. It added that she had not received official documents stating the cause of death.Twigg said Russia had criminalised "false information" about threats to public safety in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, and that "silence is the one safe move for everyone below the top". She added, "Personalist regimes without electoral accountability tend to treat bad news as a loyalty problem rather than focusing on the actual problem to be addressed." She warned that public mistrust carried risks: "A government that is not believed when it says there is no outbreak’ will not be believed when it must actually say there is one; do the following.’ We saw this with COVID," she said.Experts said pneumonic plague and the better known bubonic plague, or Black Death, are caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Simon Clarke of the University of Reading said pneumonic plague is caused by breathing in the bacteria, which infects the lungs, while bubonic plague is spread by flea bites from infected rodents. He said the bacterium has not been eliminated, but does not spread very easily and can be treated with antibiotics.The case has therefore left WHO seeking clearer answers from Russia, while Russian authorities say the situation is calm, preventive steps have been taken and no dangerous pathogen has been found among contacts so far.With PTI Inputs- Ends