BEIJING: Beijing made its first official comments on the suspected case of pneumonic plague in Siberia, saying it’s cooperating with Russia as health concerns intensify around the world.
"China and Russia maintain close communication and cooperation in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, including the plague,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Guo Jiakun said Tuesday (Oct 6) in response to a question about whether Moscow has informed Beijing of the incident.
The brief remarks, which came during a weeklong public holiday in China, follow the death last week of a worker at an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s region of Irkutsk that led to almost 200 contacts reportedly being placed under observation. Coverage of the incident has been limited in Chinese state media.
Just over a month ago, the institution in Irkutsk concluded an emergency response trial with China on handling infectious disease outbreaks. Russian and Chinese participants also discussed how to monitor and control the spread of diseases in their border regions.
The Irkutsk region lies north of Mongolia and doesn’t directly border China, but the local capital is a major hub with frequent flights and rail links to Chinese cities. China’s consulate in Irkutsk didn’t respond to a request for comment.
Mongolia’s Ministry of Health released a statement on Wednesday saying it assesses the risk from the incident to be "low.” The ministry added that work will continue to control border security and monitor health at the frontier with Russia in cooperation with relevant agencies.
The 28-year-old laboratory worker died after developing severe pneumonia. Unconfirmed local news reports said the researcher may have been exposed to the bacterium that causes plague after breaking a test tube.
Plague is one of the world’s most feared diseases, responsible for pandemics that killed tens of millions of people. Today, though, human cases are rare and can usually be treated with antibiotics.
US President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has a call scheduled with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the case "very soon.”
He indicated that the US would have more to share about the matter. "So far, we’re in very deep discussions. We’ll be able to report about it probably tomorrow,” the president said. - Bloomberg
