‘Plague in Siberia: if it isn’t bioterrorism, we have all the tools we need to deal with it’

‘The disease itself is serious, but it does not, in fact, affect our country, where, moreover, we have the diagnostic tools to carry out a test within an hour and the antibiotic treatments to treat it properly and promptly. The risk of a pandemic, even bearing in mind that this is a bacterium and not a virus, is therefore remote. This is, of course, without prejudice to the risk of bioterrorism, which cannot be entirely ruled out, given the location of the death of the young laboratory technician, who is believed to have become infected when a test tube broke whilst she was working in a certified BSL-4 (Biosafety Level 4) high-security environment. ‘Geopolitical instability cannot be entirely disregarded.’ Marco Falcone, Professor of Infectious Diseases at Pisa and Director of Infectious Diseases at the Pisa University Hospital, and a member of the SIMIT advisory board, first of all plays down the high mortality rate attributed to the deadliest form of plague: the pneumonic form from which Daria Shipilova, the 28-year-old researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia, died.

But it was the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who was most vocal in calling for greater clarity from the Russian authorities; he urged Russia to be transparent and to ‘share more information about what happened’, emphasising that any laboratory-acquired infection is a cause for greater concern in the wake of the Covid pandemic. Russia, for its part – even in the face of unconfirmed rumours of a second case – immediately denied that any health measures had been put in place in Siberia following the researcher’s death, reacting to offer of assistance from Donald Trump by proposing to “help the United States combat epidemics on its territory”.
The US Embassy in Russia has, however, stated that it “continues to closely monitor” the situation in the Siberian region of Irkutsk and has issued a series of instructions to US citizens on the matter. These include “following the guidance of local health authorities” and “seeking medical assistance promptly if they develop a fever or respiratory symptoms”. Furthermore, the embassy’s website states that US citizens are advised to “monitor their health for 14 days” if they have travelled to an area where an outbreak is underway. The embassy also points out that the State Department’s Level 4 travel advisory remains in force, under which “US citizens in Russia should leave immediately” and that those planning a trip to the country are “strongly advised not to travel to Russia due to the risk of unjust detention and security concerns”.

As announced last June, a conference on the plague and other infectious diseases will be held in Irkutsk on 21 and 22 October, bringing together experts from various former Soviet republics. This conference, which is generally held every two years, will focus on epidemiological surveillance, international cooperation and public health protection, according to the event’s website, which has not yet provided details of the exact programme.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta are on alert: in a post on X, the federal agency of the US Department of Health and Human Services states that it is ‘aware of reports concerning a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia which has resulted in one death, and is closely monitoring the situation. ‘We are working in coordination with the entire US government to assess developments as further information becomes available,’ the statement reads. ‘Although the circumstances of this reported case remain unconfirmed, plague is a serious bacterial disease that can be treated with antibiotics, particularly when recognised and treated early,’ the experts emphasise. For the time being, they conclude: “At present, there is no indication of a wider threat to the United States, but the CDC and our partners within the agency are prepared and will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

And according to a recent meta-analysis by the CDC, the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the mortality rate for this form of the disease – which is mainly transmitted by infected rodent fleas – ‘remains high but stands at 17 per cent’ in cases of prompt treatment, continues Marco Falcone. Meanwhile, the WHO has also stated that it has launched an investigation with the Russian authorities following the death: ‘The Organisation’s initial risk assessment, based on the available information, indicates that the risk is moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for the Russian Federation as a whole and very low for the European region,’ said spokesperson Christian Lindmeier during a press briefing in Geneva.