LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Russian authorities are telling people to stay calm after a worker at an infectious disease institute in Siberia died. The cause of the illness that killed her is unknown, and that death has led people to speculate about the outbreak of the plague or another very infectious disease. Joining us to talk about where things stand is NPR's Russia correspondent Charles Maynes in Moscow. Good morning, Charles.
CHARLES MAYNES, BYLINE: Morning, Leila.
FADEL: So what do we know about what happened?
MAYNES: Well, so one thing that's never been disputed - last Tuesday, a 28-year-old female lab worker at an anti-plague research institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region fell ill and died two days later. The cause of her death is where things get murky. The head of Russia's consumer health watchdog, a body called Rospotrebnadzor, was dispatched immediately to the area - that's some 2,500 miles from Moscow - and quickly declared this young woman had died from pneumonia of an unknown origin.
A follow-on investigation by the agency found no pathogens in this lab worker's body were linked to her work with infectious diseases, nor was there any evidence of other employees that had gotten sick. So authorities declared the epidemiological environment in the Irkutsk region stable, a position that's been backed by the Kremlin, so kind of case closed.
FADEL: Is that what people there think? - case closed?
MAYNES: Well, that's the problem. You know, these reassuring statements aren't doing much to calm the public. They're seeing, I want to stress, unconfirmed reports by local media that several hospitals have been placed under quarantine.
Why? Well, the reports spoke of concerns about the spread of the pneumonic plague, a potentially deadly airborne disease that is among the areas of study at this Siberian laboratory. And transparency with the Russian government has long been an issue here.
So when people see additional measures - like videos on social media showing health workers wanding temperature gauges over passengers as they arrive on flights from Irkutsk to Moscow - you know, it sets off alarm bells, particularly after the experience of the COVID pandemic.
FADEL: And what can you tell us about the institute itself where the lab technician who died was working?
MAYNES: Well, for one, it's got a really long name - the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. The institute itself dates back to the Stalinist period. It was founded by the Soviets in the 1930s to monitor strains of dangerous pathogens like anthrax, cholera and the plague, the latter of which has rolled across Siberia through the millennia.
But the institute's work has also been preventative. I mean, it's even partnered with specialists from the U.S., Europe and China in recent years. So there's nothing here to suggest, at least based on its history, that this is some kind of military biolab or anything of that nature. But again, that hasn't stopped people from speculating.
FADEL: What has the U.S. government said?
MAYNES: Well, President Trump has offered to help Russia with any containment efforts, if need be, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio struck a similar tone, saying basically, let's wait and see.
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MARCO RUBIO: Right, so we're watching and monitoring it closely. 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.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What's your view of the the offensive this past weekend?
MAYNES: And just one final point, Leila - if, by some chance, this is the plague, it's worth keeping in mind this is not an unknown pathogen like we saw with COVID-19. In fact, just the opposite. Despite the plague's history and reputation for death - it killed half of Europe in the Middle Ages, after all - you know, the plague can be treated quite effectively today through containment measures and antibiotics if provided in time.
FADEL: That's NPR's Charles Maynes in Moscow. Thank you, Charles.
MAYNES: Thank you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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