Medical experts on plague risks after reported death of lab worker in Russia

US President Donald Trump announced on Tuesday that he would soon converse with Russian President Vladimir Putin regarding the reported death of a laboratory technician from plague in Russia. Washington had been urging Moscow for transparency in the matter. Russian authorities, however, denied implementing anti-plague measures and downplayed the incident that occurred at a plague research institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region the previous week.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russia to be open about the situation, echoing the appeal made by the World Health Organization. Rubio stated that Russia should share more information to allow the world to respond appropriately. Trump later confirmed that he had scheduled a call with Putin to discuss the matter, emphasizing his readiness to assist Russia if required.

The cause of death was not confirmed by Russian authorities, who conducted postmortem tests and found no signs of plague. The institute's director stated that no microorganisms related to the woman's professional work were found in her biological samples, and no other staff had sought medical attention since her passing. The World Health Organization confirmed that no cases of the disease had been recorded in Irkutsk at the time of the report.