Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the United States is closely monitoring reports of a potential pneumonic plague case that may have led to the death of a laboratory worker in Russia.
“It seems that it was a worker at the lab that was infected, and there’s concern that that, you know, could have spread, at least internally,” Rubio told reporters. “There’s very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia, obviously, but like anything else, something like that gets out, it could quickly spread.”
Rubio said the situation does not currently warrant alarm, but that U.S. officials are keeping a close eye on developments.
“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it, and we’re doing that,” he said.
The worker was employed at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East and died last week from pneumonia of an undetermined origin, according to Irkutsk regional Governor Igor Kobzev.
Kobzev said no microorganisms linked to the woman’s professional activities were detected in her body. He also said no other employees at the laboratory had developed the illness and described the region’s sanitary and epidemiological situation as stable.
The circumstances surrounding the death have not been fully established, and neither Russian officials nor the World Health Organization has confirmed that the woman died from plague.
Still, authorities have taken precautionary measures, including quarantining the inpatient facility where the worker was treated, according to Maksim Modin, mayor of the Shelekhov municipal district near Russia’s border with Mongolia.
Russian media reported that nearly 200 people who had contact with the woman were placed under medical observation.
Russian media outlets have identified the woman as 28 years old and named her, though officials have not confirmed those details.
The World Health Organization told CNN it was in contact with Russia’s health authorities to “verify the event, its circumstances, the laboratory tests underway, and their results” but that the risk to the public “appears to be low.”
“Many details have not been confirmed,” a State Department spokesman said. “We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly.” The spokesman said there had been “reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague” in Irkutsk oblast.
The pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacterium as bubonic plague, which caused the Black Death and killed an estimated 30% to 50% of Europe’s population between 1347 and 1351. However, pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can spread from person to person through respiratory droplets, typically when an infected person coughs or sneezes, according to the World Health Organization.
Symptoms include fever, headache, weakness, chest pain, coughing, and difficulty breathing. Pneumonic plague requires immediate treatment with antibiotics. Without prompt care, the WHO warns, the disease can become fatal within 18 to 24 hours after symptoms begin.
In July 2025, there was a confirmed death from pneumonic plague in Arizona involving a man who had been exposed to ill cats, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The man died less than eight hours after being admitted to a hospital with worsening breathing problems, and 46 people who may have been exposed to him were subsequently given preventive antibiotics. No one who received the treatment developed the illness.
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