Russia declares all clear after tracing contacts in reported plague case
MOSCOW: Russia has detected no health issues or dangerous micro-organisms after tracing all contacts of a woman who reportedly died of plague, the governor of Siberia’s Irkutsk region said Thursday.
Moscow: Following the tracing of all contacts with a woman who reported died of plague, Russia declared an all clear on Thursday, according to the governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev. Medical monitoring of everyone who had contact with the woman concluded without finding any health issues related to infectious diseases. Russia has not confirmed the woman's death was caused by plague, instead stating she contracted community-acquired pneumonia.
The news outlet People of Baikal, whose journalists have been exiled, initially reported that the 28-year-old employee at a plague research institute in the Irkutsk region died of plague, possibly from a broken test tube. The United States, European Union, and World Health Organization expressed concern and urged Russia to be transparent about the situation.
Dozens were reportedly quarantined for days due to fears of an outbreak. Kobzev mentioned that the full range of preventive measures had been completed in the region, citing information from Russia's health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor. He added that the sanitary-epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and Shelekhov is stable.
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