Erica Schwartz said the agency is working with homeland security, state and defense officials to track whether anyone from the Irkutsk area enters the United States. She cited screening capacity at JFK.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Erica Schwartz said on Wednesday that the risk to the United States from an unconfirmed pneumonic plague case in Siberia was extremely low, Reuters reported. She spoke at the Wall Street Journal's Future of Health event in Washington.
Schwartz said the agency is working with the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of State, the Department of War and other agencies so that it knows if anyone from that area enters the United States. She said a port health station at John F. Kennedy Airport can conduct surveillance and screening for travelers from the region.
The Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately respond when asked whether screening would be set up at JFK, Reuters said.
Russia's health regulator has said there is no risk of an epidemic in Siberia after a worker at a plague institute died of pneumonia of undetermined origin. Schwartz described the case as unconfirmed.
The remarks are a US risk assessment and a monitoring plan. They do not confirm plague in the dead worker.
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- Schwartz said the risk to the United States was extremely low and that the agency was prepared to monitor and screen travelers.