President Donald Trump says he will speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin after the death of a plague research lab technician in Siberia.
Darya Shipilova, 28, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, in Shelekov, southeastern Siberia. She died a week after she reportedly smashed a test tube containing the bacterium that causes the pneumonic plague.
Speaking to reporters at the White House on Tuesday, Trump was asked whether he planned to speak to the Russian leader about the situation.
“I have a call scheduled,” he said, noting that it was set to take place “very soon.”
Trump spoke to Putin over the phone in September to discuss the ongoing war in Ukraine.
A second reporter asked Trump what intelligence agencies at home in the U.S. had told him about the suspected plague death.
“So far, we’re in very deep discussions. We’ll be able to report about it probably tomorrow,” he said.
Shipilova died on October 2 after being hospitalized with severe pneumonia, WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stated on X.
Russia has denied she had the plague, but nearly 200 people were quarantined in the area after she was taken ill.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, said in a statement Tuesday that no cases of plague have been identified among those who came into contact with Shipilova. Russian authorities also told the WHO that no cases have been detected in the city of Irkutsk.
However, several media outlets, including ynet Global, reported a second person has died in the Irkutsk region after allegedly contracting the disease.
The WHO has requested further information on what Ghebreyesus described in his post as a second case of “pneumonia of undetermined cause.”
Amid concerns over the first possible plague case, Trump pledged on Monday to help Russia, declaring to reporters: “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help.”
The president has also weighed in on the nature of the plague itself, stating that the bacteria causing it have gotten stronger.
“It’s a rough disease. You know, that’s a disease that we used to be able to control, but somehow those microbes have gotten stronger and smarter,” he claimed to reporters. “They’re like an army.”
The pneumonic plague is caused by a bacterium named Yersinia pestis and can be spread from person to person via droplets in the air.
The bacterium was responsible for the disease known as the Black Death, which killed millions of people across Europe during the 14th Century.
Read MoreNaked statue of Trump named ‘Orange Plague’ unveiled at European Parliament
Russian strikes kill at least 15 in Ukraine on Putin’s birthday
