Reports About Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in Siberia Are False: Peskov

The World Health Organization confirmed that Russia has followed international health protocols.

ON Wednesday, the Kremlin warned, amid reports of a second death linked to a possible outbreak of pneumonic plague in Siberia, that the vast majority of those reports are false.

“Media outlets are now reporting a lot of news, and the vast majority of what they publish about this situation is false information,” presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at his daily telephone news conference.

As he had done in previous days, he again called for calm and urged people to rely exclusively on information published by Russia’s consumer protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor. He also stressed that Moscow had “properly” informed the World Health Organization (WHO).

The 28-year-old woman who died Oct. 2 worked at the Irkutsk and Far East Plague Research Institute. She died from “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” after which two cases of COVID-19 and two additional cases of rhinovirus infection were detected among people who had contact with her.

From the outset, media reports considered two possible explanations for her death at a hospital in Shelekhov, a satellite city of the regional capital: that the patient contracted pneumonic plague, caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, in Thailand, from where she had recently returned, or that it resulted from the accidental breakage of a test tube containing pathogens at her workplace.

⚠️A brief overview of Pneumonic and
Bubonic Plague.

The bacteria that causes this is Yersinia Pestis, it is an antique bacteria that resulted in the black death in Europe in the dark ages.

The bacteria involves the urine of the black rat, ‘rattis rattis’ , and the rat’s fleas.… pic.twitter.com/L8YI8bKSX7

— Dr Richard Hirschson (@richardhirschs1) October 4, 2026

Rospotrebnadzor said that no accident had occurred at the institute in question during the handling of microorganisms and stressed that the investigation confirmed that all protocols had been followed during the research work.

The agency recalled that the young woman had been vaccinated and had strong immunity against possible infections. It added that the epidemiological situation in Irkutsk is “calm,” with “no epidemic risks,” and that more than 90% of tests on people who had contact with the deceased had already been completed.

“No condition related to an infectious disease has been detected,” it stressed, adding that nearly 5,000 laboratory tests had found “no dangerous pathogenic microorganism.”

Finally, Rospotrebnadzor reiterated that it had reported all its findings to the WHO, which said that Russia had assured it that all international health protocols had been followed after the researcher died of severe pneumonia, but said more information needs to be shared in a “transparent” manner.

“Rapid, complete and transparent information sharing under the International Health Regulations is essential to clarify contradictory reports and allow for an accurate assessment of potential public health risks,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

According to information Russia provided to the WHO, “no case of plague has recently been recorded in the Irkutsk region (where the laboratory is located), nor have highly dangerous pathogens been detected among contacts,” Tedros stated, adding that medical monitoring of all of them had concluded.

On Wednesday, the U.S. Embassy in Moscow warned its citizens about the possible pneumonic plague outbreak and urged them to leave the country as soon as possible, before the leaders of the two nations, Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump, address the issue in a telephone conversation.

teleSUR/ JF

Source: EFE

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