WHO Urges Russian Transparency After Second ‘Plague Worker’ Falls Ill

The Director-General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said he has joined the call by the US and European leaders for Russia to share more information about the cause of the death of Dara Shipilova, a worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia. The call came as media reports emerged that a second employee had fallen ill with what Moscow termed “pneumonia of an unknown etiology.” Writing on X on Wednesday, Ghebreyesus said that the United Nations-sponsored organization was awaiting clarification on the causes of the “severe pneumonia” that had killed Shipilova and, in particular, the presence or otherwise of any “pathogen” that had prompted the imposition of quarantine measures at hospitals and a factory in the Irkutsk region over the weekend.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. “Timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations is essential to clarify conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of potential public health risks,” his statement read. Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov rejected reports of a suspected second case of plague in Siberia, saying that nearly all Western media reports were “false.” He said people should rely solely on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor. He said the WHO had been fully informed about the details relating to the case of pneumonia in the Irkutsk region. Other Topics of Interest For Putin’s 74th Birthday, Ukraine Counts Nearly 1.55 Million Russian Military Losses Ukraine’s General Staff says Russian forces lost another 1,690 personnel and nearly 1,900 drones over the past day. Peskov also said he had “no information” regarding a demarche – a formal diplomatic request for clarification – from Washington. He also denied reports in the US media that cited US President Donald Trump as saying he had scheduled a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the matter. TASS, citing the press service of Rospotrebnadzor – Russia’s sanitary watchdog – said a full review of biosafety requirements at the Institute had found them to be fully compliant with all legislative requirements. It said that an expanded series of tests on samples taken from the dead woman had “found no microorganisms associated with her professional activities.” It then added that testing of around 190 workers who had been in contact with Shipilova had identified two cases of COVID-19 and several cases of rhinovirus infection. Despite Moscow’s assurances, the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday evening cited unnamed “disease experts” as saying that the incomplete and sometimes contradictory information provided by Russia’s health authorities makes it impossible to draw firm conclusions about the risk to the wider population and fears over the potential spread of an unknown illness continue to rise. Kyiv Post is Ukraine’s first and oldest English news organization, reporting since 1995. Its international reach – 90% of readers are outside of Ukraine – make it truly Ukraine’s global voice.