WHO Seeks Answers Over Russian Lab Worker's Death

The case has raised questions about transparency. Under the International Health Regulations (IHR), a treaty signed by 197 countries including Russia, governments must inform the WHO within 24 hours of detecting a serious health event that could spread across borders. According to NPR (National Public Radio), however, the WHO learned of the death through media reports and contacted Russia on October 3. Moscow replied three days later, reporting no plague cases in the region and confirming that around 200 contacts had been quarantined. Alexandra Phelan, a global health expert at Johns Hopkins University, described the response as both delayed and incomplete. Meanwhile, Russia has denied reports of a second death, which the WHO traced to British and Serbian tabloids, and the worker's mother has dismissed claims that she was infected after breaking a test tube.

Russian officials insist they have found no dangerous pathogens: the WHO cites more than 5,500 tests, while Russia's health watchdog reported nearly 5,000 samples, and quarantine measures have since been lifted. In the United States, Erica Schwartz, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), announced health monitoring for travellers from the region at JFK (John F. Kennedy International Airport) in New York, while stressing that the threat was extremely low. President Donald Trump, after speaking with Vladimir Putin, said he did not believe a biological weapon was involved. Plague can be treated with antibiotics if caught early, and one expert told NPR that the risk to the general public is likely very low, although he warned that the episode shows how weak global rules on sharing health information remain.