America President Donald Trump has offered to help his counterpart Vladimir Putin following reports of a suspected outbreak of deadly airborne plague in Siberia.
As Russia scrambled to contain the pneumonic plague, more than 200 people are under medical observation and four hospitals have been closed for a three-week quarantine in Irkutsk, following the death of Daria Shipilova.
The 28-year-old lab technician reportedly fell ill after accidentally breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria at a Siberian research institute.
She spent days in hospital before passing away from ‘pneumonia of unknown etiology’, according to Russian officials.
But around 60 of her colleagues remain isolated in the institute amid fears that Ms Shipilova may have caught and died from pneumonic plague.
Officials in Moscow have, however, been keen to downplay the risk of a widespread transmission.
Speaking on Monday, Trump revealed that the US will ‘help’ Russia cope with the outbreak of the disease.
He said: ‘Well, we’re looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it, and they call it pneumonia.
‘And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger disproportionately, but we’ll help them.’
Pneumonic plague attacks the lungs and passes easily from person to person through respiratory particles, though it can be cured with antibiotics when treated promptly.
Russia’s health watchdog claims expanded testing found no microorganisms linked to Shipilova’s work and denies there was any accident at the institute.
