WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked Russia for timely information on a 28-year-old technician who died after working at an anti-plague institute in Irkutsk. President Trump said a call with Vladimir Putin was set; the Kremlin said none was scheduled.
The World Health Organization asked Russia on Wednesday for a fuller account of the death of a laboratory worker at an anti-plague institute in Siberia, the BBC reported. Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency did not yet have the full picture and wanted verification of media reports of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause.
Russian officials say the employee, named in Russian media as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, died of pneumonia of undetermined etiology. Irkutsk's governor said no micro-organisms linked to her work were found in her biological samples. Rospotrebnadzor has said inspections found no emergency at the Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
Social-media posts claiming she broke a flask of plague and infected hundreds of people are unproven, DW reported. The agency said two commissions found no evidence of an accident involving pathogenic micro-organisms. Unconfirmed reports have also linked her illness to a field trip in Buryatia, where plague occurs in wild rodents.
President Donald Trump said he had a call set up with Vladimir Putin and that the United States was in deep discussions. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said no phone call had been scheduled, the BBC reported. Peskov also said he was not aware of a WHO request.
No laboratory confirmation of plague in the dead worker was cited by Russian authorities in the reports used here. The WHO request does not itself establish a leak.
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- Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus asked Russia for timely, complete and transparent information.
- Dmitry Peskov said no Trump-Putin call had been scheduled, after Trump said one was set.