KDCA rates risk of plague reaching Korea ‘very low’ after Russian lab death
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency called the chance of plague entering Korea "very low” as Russia investigates a researcher’s death.
The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency building is seen in this undated photo.
YONHAP
Korea’s disease control agency put the chance of plague reaching the country at “very low” on Monday, after the death of a researcher at a Russian plague institute from pneumonia of unknown cause raised fears of an infection.
“After the situation arose, we held a rapid risk assessment [last Wednesday] and rated the likelihood of an outbreak as ‘very low’ and its impact as ‘low,’” the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency (KDCA) said in its regular briefing.
“Apart from the person who died, no symptoms have appeared among contacts in Russia, and no detection of the pathogen has been reported,” the agency said. “Exposure is known to have been limited to the institute and the hospital, and the contacts are now in quarantine, so we assessed the chance of it entering Korea as low.”
Even if the death is confirmed as plague, the impact on Korea would be limited, the KDCA said. Early antibiotic treatment tends to work against pneumonic plague, the form of the disease that infects the lungs.
The agency also judged that a patient arriving in Korea could be treated without difficulty. The country has enough antibiotics stockpiled, and a wide range of antibiotics is available on the market.
The KDCA will keep monitoring the situation in Russia and plan to hold a meeting Monday afternoon to review developments and assess the risk.
Darya Shipilova, a researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died of what Russian authorities called pneumonia of unknown origin on Oct. 2, local reports reported. She handled dangerous pathogens, including the bacterium that causes plague.
Russian health authorities said no dangerous pathogens handled at the institute, including the plague bacterium, were found in tests on her remains. Two inspections of the institute found no emergency such as a pathogen leak, they said, and tests of her contacts in the Irkutsk region turned up no further infections.
But the exact cause of death has yet to be disclosed after some 5,000 lab tests, and questions over how much Russian authorities have shared persist.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has also asked Russia to identify the pathogen. Maria Van Kerkhove, the WHO’s director of epidemic and pandemic management, said last Wednesday that the agency did not know the “causative agent” behind the death.
“This is why we need more information,” she said.
BY JUNG SI-NAE [[email protected]]
This article was originally written in Korean and translated by a bilingual reporter with the help of generative AI tools. It was then edited by a native English-speaking editor. All AI-assisted translations are reviewed and refined by our newsroom.
