Donald Trump announced he's going to talk to Vladimir Putin about the suspicious death of a Russian investigator infected with pneumonia. While Washington calls for greater transparency and the WHO now pushes away an outbreak, ECDC closely follows the case that stirs up the international community.
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06/10/2026
by
News to Minute, Lusa
O president of the United States, Donald Trump, said this Tuesday that he intends to talk to his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about the death of a worker at a Russian research institute for suspected pneumonic plague.
Asked about the incident by journalists in the White House, Trump said he plans to talk “very soon” with Putin.
“I intend to call you,” Trump shot.
The US President's statements arise after Secretary of State Marco Rubio admitted that the Trump administration is having difficulty getting clear answers about the death of the worker.
“ It is obviously Russia’s responsibility to share more information with the world,” Rubio said. “Maybe it’s something bigger than we thought. We do not know, but I think it would be unwise at the moment, given the limited information we still have, to speculate.”
A senior official from the State Department, quoted by CNN International, said that the US authorities had been in contact with the Russian government since at least last Friday.
It should be noted that the worker, identified by various media as Daria Shipilova, 28 years old, worked at the Institute for Anti-Pest Research of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk.
She was hospitalized in late September and died early this month after developing severe pneumonia. The Russian authorities have described the cause as an unknown pneumonia and have so far denied that a plague infection has been confirmed.
The possibility of pneumonic plague arose due to the workplace of the woman, since the institute where she worked is dedicated to the investigation of pathogens, including the bacteria responsible for the plague.
On Monday, the European Commission indicated that it was monitoring the situation and in contact with the ECDC, after having learned information on a possible outbreak of pulmonary plague in Siberia.
On Tuesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced that it received information from Russian authorities according to which no cases of plague were identified in the city of Irkutsk.
According to the organization, people who had contact with the worker were tested and the results did not reveal dangerous infectious agents.
However, the WHO did not independently confirm the cause of death of the worker, and the investigation into the origin of pneumonia remains open. The organization said that the risk to the general population is low, but will continue to monitor the situation.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also said it was “following closely” the death of the worker.
“Following the news of the death of a laboratory worker in Irkutsk, Russia, due to pneumonia suspected of being a pneumonic plague, the ECDC is closely monitoring the situation,” the Community agency said.