WHO Seeks Answers After Russian Lab Worker Dies

The case has raised questions about openness. Under the International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty signed by 197 countries including Russia, governments must tell the WHO within 24 hours about serious health events that could spread abroad. However, NPR (National Public Radio) reports that the WHO learned about the death from the media. It contacted Russia on October 3 and received an answer three days later, saying there was no plague in the region and about 200 contacts were in quarantine. Alexandra Phelan, a health expert at Johns Hopkins University, said the response was slow and incomplete. Russia has also denied reports of a second death.

Russian officials say thousands of tests found no dangerous germs, and the quarantine has ended. In the United States, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announced health checks at JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York for travellers from the region, but said the threat was extremely low. President Donald Trump said he did not believe a biological weapon was involved. Plague can be treated with antibiotics if found early, and one expert said the public risk is probably very low, but he warned that global rules on sharing health information are weak.