A huge Russian flag flies behind an apartment building in St. Petersburg, Russia, on February 19, 2025.
Anton Vaganov | Reuters
According to local media reports, nearly 200 people are under medical observation in the Irkutsk region of eastern Siberia, suspected of being infected with the plague.
The report said 189 people were under observation after an employee of Irkutsk’s Institute for Plague Control Research fell ill. The head of neighboring Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, said the woman died from an unspecified form of plague.
Russia’s public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said on Sunday that the employee was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown cause” and that the sanitary-epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov was stable.
The agency said expanded testing did not detect any microorganisms related to the employee’s work.
The latest information follows local media reports on Friday that a 27-year-old employee at the Institute for Plague Control fell ill with suspected pneumonic plague after returning from a business trip to the Republic of Buryatia, where an outbreak has been reported near the border with Mongolia, Russian telegraph agency Mash said.
The White House is monitoring reports of suspected cases and related quarantines in Russia, Axios reported Sunday, citing Trump administration officials. Officials said the administration is “aware of the outbreak and is monitoring and evaluating options,” according to the report.
The Russian and Moscow health ministries, the World Health Organization and the U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to CNBC’s requests for comment.
