Secretary of State Marco Rubio says the U.S. still has limited information about a suspected pneumonic plague death in Russia, but it's watching the situation and has measures in place in case the situation turns out to be more serious than what has been acknowledged.
"We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world, so that all of us can react accordingly," Rubio said during a news conference in Reykjavik, Iceland.
U.S. officials have been monitoring the situation in southeastern Russia after a laboratory worker at an institute that studies the plague suddenly died of a "pneumonia of unknown origin." The person was said to be an woman in her late 20s who was employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia
and the Far East, roughly 150 miles from Russia’s border with Mongolia.
Rubio said the information was concerning, especially after the COVID-19 outbreak, but it would be "irresponsible" to speculate because the U.S. does not have all the information yet. He publicly pressed Russia to provide more details.
"I think it's incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world. That's what they should do, that's what we hope they will do," Rubio said. "The more we can learn about what happened, the better all of us can be in a position of responding.
The Kremlin has offered few details publicly, saying that Rospotrebnadzor, a health and consumer protection agency in Russia, is monitoring the situation. Local authorities said they have implemented "anti-epidemic measures" in the region to contain the infection. Individuals in quarantine had not shown any signs of infection as of Oct. 5.
The State Department previously said that it was "aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague" in Russia and that it was monitoring developments alongside the the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other agencies.
President Donald Trump later offered to help Russia on Oct. 5, telling reporters, “I hate to see them having it. That’s a rough disease."
“They called it pneumonia. Years ago, you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger, disproportionately. But we’ll help them," Trump said.
Contributing: Miles Herszenhorn
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Rubio presses Russia to be transparent about pneumonic plague death
