Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Mongolia strengthened border-control measures with Russia after the death of a researcher in a laboratory in the country and due to concerns about the spread of pneumonic plague. According to the IRNA agency, although Moscow announced that the researcher Daria Shipilova died not of bubonic plague, but of a type of “unknown pneumonia,” the growing public health concerns led other countries to intensify their efforts to carry out the necessary investigations and to implement closer monitoring.
The death led Russian authorities to place at least one medical unit in quarantine and about 200 people under medical observation. Kyrgyzstan is the first country in Central Asia to order reinforced sanitary controls at all of its border crossings after reports of plague cases. Uzbekistan also announced “measures to prevent the entry and spread of highly dangerous infections.”
Additionally, the Ministry of Health of Kazakhstan implemented preventive measures and intensified sanitary and quarantine controls along its border with Russia. Mongolia also placed its border areas on maximum alert. The United States announced that it is monitoring the outbreak of plague.
The European Commission is monitoring “very closely” the alleged outbreak of pneumonic plague in Siberia and is ready to coordinate a response among member states, if necessary, according to Euronews.
