HEALTH chiefs are demanding answers from Russia after reports of a second plague victim – fuelling growing fears of an outbreak.
Panic broke out last week after a scientist in Russia died after reportedly being exposed to the plague.
Hundreds are in quarantine, hospitals have been shut down and public events were cancelled in the Eastern European country.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) announced last night it was probing reports of a second case.
WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the global health body has sought answers from Russia following “reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause”.
It comes after unverified reports from Russian media claimed a second person had died of the plague in Russia’s Irkutsk region.
The US embassy in Russia has now warned Americans about the threat of plague and urged them to leave the territory “immediately”.
US President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he had a call scheduled with Russian leader Vladimir Putin “very soon”.
Trump said he was involved in “very deep discussions” and would be able to offer more details “probably tomorrow”.
It comes amid reports that the US government is growing increasingly frustrated by Moscow’s failure to disclose more details on the researchers death.
On Tuesday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned the information from Russia was “still quite limited”.
“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know”, he added.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed it has “officially requested additional information from the Russian government.”
Fears of a plague outbreak ignited last week when Daria Shipilova, 28, died after being exposed to what some outlets reported to be the plague.
She reportedly told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube holding live bacteria at Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.
The scientist then became ill while on an expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, near Russia‘s eastern border with Mongolia.
But Russian health authorities initially failed to confirm Daria’s death, sparking fears of a cover-up.
Russian officials said they have found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with, but media reports suggest she may have died of pneumonic plague.
They also claimed a probe found no accidents involving dangerous pathogens and a broken test-tube at the high-security laboratory.
The country’s consumer welfare service said the “sanitary-epidemiological situation” in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov was “stable”.
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) declared Tuesday it is seeking further information on the Russian case.
But the risk to the wider UK population is considered to be “very low”, UKHSA added.
Source : https://www.the-sun.com/news/17108411/plague-mystery-chiefs-demand-answers-russia-trump-putin/
