Trump says he will speak with Putin about suspected plague case in Russia

WASHINGTON — U.S. President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss a possible case of plague at a Siberian research institute.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said he would be talking with Putin about the case “very soon.”

“We’ll be able to report about it, probably tomorrow,” Trump said.

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Health authorities are investigating after the death of an employee at an anti-plague institute, which Russian authorities attributed to pneumonia with an unknown cause.

The World Health Organization on Tuesday said the case presents a “very low” risk outside Russia.

The United Nations agency said it was in contact with Russian authorities following reports of the death last week of a woman who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

On Monday, Trump said the U.S. would be willing to help Russia with the situation.

“It’s a rough disease. You know, that’s a disease we used to be able to control, but somehow those microbes have gotten stronger and smarter. They’re like an army,” Trump told reporters.

Asked about Trump’s remarks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that “it is always very good when mutual assistance is offered.”

He deferred further comment to Russia's national public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor.

WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said Russian officials have not yet asked for WHO experts to deploy to Russia, where authorities are “looking into whether pneumonic plague caused her death.”

He said the institute where the woman worked “studies dangerous pathogens,” including plague in a part of Siberia where the disease “occurs naturally in wild animals.”

Through an international health alert system, Russian health officials on Tuesday said a full range of preventive measures had been carried out, including tracing of the deceased woman’s contacts, medical monitoring and lab tests.

“Test results showed no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts,” said the note from Russian authorities, which was relayed to The Associated Press by WHO.

“Based on available data, laboratory test results, and health status, medical monitoring for 100% of the contacts has now been concluded,” it said.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russian authorities to share more information.

“Maybe there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know,” he said at a news conference in Iceland.

“We encourage Russia to be more transparent and share more information with the world,” Rubio said, adding this has so far been “quite limited, but hopefully that will change in the next few hours and days.”

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday it was aware of and monitoring reports of the death, which it called “a suspected case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region of Russia.”

“At this time, there is no indication of a broader threat to the United States, but CDC and our interagency partners are prepared and will continue to monitor the situation closely,” the CDC wrote on X.

The Public Health Agency of Canada told Global News Monday evening that “at this time, no risk to Canada has been identified” and that it was “closely monitoring the situation.”

Ian Jones, professor of virology at the University of Reading, said that “plague carries a huge history and is still present in many parts of the world, including Russia,” although because of modern living conditions and antibiotics, its potential was limited.

Dr. Glenn Wortmann, at the MedStar Washington Hospital Center, said the bacteria that cause plague don’t “travel very far” and a person would “really need to be face-to-face” with an infected person to get pneumonic plague.

“The chance of this spreading widely in Russia and then extending here to the U.S. will not happen, not with this type of bacteria, because it’s not spread easily and we have antibiotics to stop it from spreading,” he added.

The call between Trump and Putin also comes as the Trump administration faces an Oct. 18 deadline to decide which Russian entities, if any, it will sanction under the Lindsey O. Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act.

Ukraine has given the administration and Congress a wish list of Russian companies, vessels and individuals it would like to see hit with U.S. sanctions under that law.

With files from CityNews, CBC News and Global News