Editor's note: this story was translated from the original VOA Russian article.
The U.S. Embassy in Russia is warning Americans about a suspected case of pneumonic plague and stressed that U.S. citizens should "refrain from travel" to Russia, and those already in the country should leave immediately.
"The U.S. Embassy is aware of media reports from the Irkutsk region regarding a suspected fatal case of pneumonic plague, as well as the associated quarantine measures and hospital closures in Irkutsk. We continue to closely monitor the situation," the embassy said in a statement Tuesday
The day before, the United States sent Russia an official request for information regarding a recent death of a lab worker. U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that he had scheduled a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"We call on Russia to be transparent and to share more information with the world so that we can all respond accordingly," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a press conference in Iceland this week.
Twenty-eight-year-old lab worker Daria Shipilova died on October 2 in the intensive care unit of the Shelekhov district hospital in Irkutsk Region. According to local media, she broke a test tube containing the plague pathogen.
Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said on Telegram on Monday that Shipilova's death was caused by pneumonia of unknown origin. According to the governor, no new cases of the disease have been recorded among other employees of the research institute.
Epidemiologist Dr. Michael Favorov, president of the Atlanta-based DiaPrep System Inc. advisory group, told VOA that Russia seemingly followed the protocols to contain the possible plague outbreak and that the risk to the U.S. is low.
“From the point of view of the United States, the chance of the spread of infection is zero. You can't really say that as epidemiologists call it close to zero because you never know what might happen,” said Favorov, who previously worked for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
CDC Director Erica Schwartz on Wednesday also said she believed any risk to the U.S. was low.
"What we're doing from a whole of government standpoint is we're making sure that we understand exactly what that threat is," Schwartz said at an event in Washington. "We are very confident that the threat to the United States is extremely low."
The WHO says it is contact with Russia over the recent death of the lab worker and is monitoring the situation.
“They informed WHO that an epidemiological investigation had been conducted, preventive and control measures implemented, and identified contacts placed under medical observation and tested,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement.