US Monitoring Suspected Plague Case in Russia ‘Hour by Hour’: Rubio

The United States and international agencies are monitoring a suspected plague case reported in Russia “hour by hour”, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said, urging Moscow to share more information about the incident.

Rubio said Washington had not reached any conclusion about the nature or seriousness of the case and cautioned against speculating about whether it could be connected to an accidentally released, intentionally modified strain.

“Any time you hear that there’s some disease that infected someone in a lab anywhere in the world, you’re going to be concerned about it,” Rubio said during a joint media availability with Icelandic Foreign Minister Thorgerdur Katrin Gunnarsdottir in Reykjavik.

Asked about reports of a fatal suspected plague case in Siberia and whether an altered strain could be involved, Rubio said there was insufficient information to draw conclusions.

“It would be irresponsible for me here to sit and speculate because we just don’t have all the information yet,” he said.

Rubio called on Russia to provide greater transparency, saying the international community needed more information to assess the situation and determine whether any response was required.

“I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” he said.

Rubio stressed that the available information remained limited and that the situation could ultimately prove less serious than feared.

“Maybe, you know, there’s nothing there. Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know,” he said.

He said the US and other international agencies were closely tracking developments and already had measures that could be deployed if the situation were found to be more serious.

“We’re watching it very closely, hour by hour. We have multiple agencies, not just in the United States but internationally, that are watching it,” Rubio said.

He added that Washington expected Russia to share additional information so governments and health authorities could respond appropriately.

“We encourage Russia to be transparent and share more information with the world, so that all of us could react accordingly and appropriately,” Rubio said.

Rubio said decisions would depend on what further information emerges in the coming hours and days, noting that the US currently had only limited details about the case.