Latest / DEEP INSIGHT / Worker at Russian plague lab dies; ‘anti-epidemic measures’ imposed

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Worker at Russian plague lab dies; ‘anti-epidemic measures’ imposed · DEEP INSIGHT

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A researcher at a lab in Siberia that is devoted
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: to studying the plague has died of a mysterious illness. Now,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: the World Health Organization says it is in contact with
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  Speaker 1: Russian authorities and says the public health risk appears low,
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  Speaker 1: at least for now. 28-year-old scientist was diagnosed with pneumonia
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of an unknown origin, according to Russia's infectious disease agency.
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  Speaker 1: Part of the hospital where That worker was treated as
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  Speaker 1: being placed under quarantine. Unofficial reports say nearly 200 people
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: are under observation. One local official suggested the victim may
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  Speaker 1: have died of the plague. CNN's Fred Pleitgen is following
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  Speaker 1: the story, joins us now. At this point, what is
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  Speaker 1: the very latest on this? Because this has been a
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  Speaker 1: story that has been sort of bubbling now for a
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  Speaker 1: couple of days. Now, how concerned should we be about
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  Speaker 1: what we are learning?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're absolutely right. It's been bubbling for a couple
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  Speaker 2: of days, and the messaging has been, to a certain extent,
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  Speaker 2: sort of going back and forth on all of this.
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  Speaker 2: First of all, all this is happening in a place
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  Speaker 2: called Shelehov, which is very far away from the Russian capital, Moscow,
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  Speaker 2: near Lake Baikal and near the border with Mongolia, and
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  Speaker 2: this lab that you were talking about. is one that
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  Speaker 2: is dedicated to fighting the plague, but also other infectious diseases. Now,
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  Speaker 2: you're absolutely right. This was a 28-year-old female lab researcher
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  Speaker 2: who died of what the Russians say was an unknown pneumonia.
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  Speaker 2: And there's one key statement that came out from the
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  Speaker 2: Russian Institute for Infectious Diseases. And they say, I want
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  Speaker 2: to quote this real quick. No microorganisms associated with the
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  Speaker 2: employee's professional duties were detected in samples taken from the
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  Speaker 2: patient And this comes from that agency. However, the head
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  Speaker 2: of that agency obviously believed that all this was serious
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  Speaker 2: enough for her to actually travel down to that region.
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  Speaker 2: And the reason for that travel was then stated by
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  Speaker 2: the local governor. Another quick quote that I want to read.
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  Speaker 2: that it was a suspected case of dangerous infections affecting
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  Speaker 2: a resident of the region. As you noted, Becky, the
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  Speaker 2: governor of the neighboring region saying that that person may
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  Speaker 2: have died of the plague. Now, the Russians at this
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  Speaker 2: point in time are saying that everything is stable. There's
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  Speaker 2: nothing to indicate that all of this has actually become
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  Speaker 2: contagious or whether or not that person actually did die
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  Speaker 2: of the plague. They are saying that no samples of
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  Speaker 2: any microorganisms were found.
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  Speaker 1: However.
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  Speaker 2: Those measures to prevent any sort of spread are indeed
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  Speaker 2: in place. And if you look at some of those quarantines,
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  Speaker 2: this apparently affects the hospital where this person was treated,
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  Speaker 2: where right now there are no new admissions and people
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  Speaker 2: who were in that hospital as inpatients are not being
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  Speaker 2: allowed out of that hospital. And other hospitals in the
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  Speaker 2: region are also closed. being put under quarantine, and of course,
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  Speaker 2: all the people who had any sort of contact with
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  Speaker 2: the person who died. So the Russians are saying the
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  Speaker 2: situation is under control, but they're also saying, and they're warning,
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  Speaker 2: this comes from the Kremlin earlier today, saying that they're
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  Speaker 2: warning against any sort of rumors and speculations. But this
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  Speaker 2: is a significant lab that we're talking about. About 95
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  Speaker 2: researchers work there. And again, it deals with fighting the
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  Speaker 2: plague in that region, but also other infectious diseases as well.
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  Speaker 2: And certainly it's a situation that many people in that region,
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  Speaker 2: and specifically in that town, also folks that we've spoken
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  Speaker 2: to say they're quite uneasy about at this point in time.
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  Speaker 3: So I want to bring in Angela Rasmussen, a virologist
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  Speaker 3: at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. Angela, how concerned
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  Speaker 3: should we be here?
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  Speaker 4: So I don't think that most people actually need to
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  Speaker 4: be particularly concerned about this, because while pneumonic plague is really,
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  Speaker 4: really deadly, it has about a case fatality rate of
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  Speaker 4: 71 percent. It's not actually very transmissible. And the Irkutsk area,
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  Speaker 4: this whole entire region of Siberia and Mongolia, is actually
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  Speaker 4: plagued with endemic plague. in much of the wildlife there.
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  Speaker 4: So that's actually why they have a research institute there.
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  Speaker 4: They're very used to dealing with this. Now, that doesn't
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  Speaker 4: necessarily mean that the secrecy about this has been great,
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  Speaker 4: but it actually isn't terribly unusual for plague cases to
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  Speaker 4: happen in this region. What is more unusual is that
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  Speaker 4: it happened from apparently a laboratory accident.
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  Speaker 3: So if it is to be discovered to be the
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  Speaker 3: plague here, would factors like the changing weather, colder temperatures,
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  Speaker 3: impact some of the spreading ability that you were describing
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  Speaker 3: a little bit there? Or I just wonder how you're
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  Speaker 3: looking at this story moving forward.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah.
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  Speaker 4: So, I mean, this is one of those things where
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  Speaker 4: on the surface, I think to a lot of people,
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  Speaker 4: it reminds them a lot of COVID and of, you know,
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  Speaker 4: a pathogen that spreads by the respiratory route could be
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  Speaker 4: potentially very deadly or maybe even like the hantavirus outbreak
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  Speaker 4: that happened earlier. You know, it's very scary to think
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  Speaker 4: of these respiratory viruses, respiratory pathogens that are going to
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  Speaker 4: spread and do what COVID did to the world. But
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  Speaker 4: the good news here for most people is that plague
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  Speaker 4: has been around for a very long time. It did
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  Speaker 4: cause a pandemic globally that occurred over centuries during the
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  Speaker 4: Middle Ages. So it's very transmissible in certain circumstances. But
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  Speaker 4: the mnemonic form of this bacteria is only acquired when
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  Speaker 4: you inhale enough of the bacteria to actually develop a
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  Speaker 4: lung infection in most cases. So you really have to
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  Speaker 4: be exposed to a lot of it. And the good
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  Speaker 4: news is that somebody who has pneumonic plague, even though
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  Speaker 4: it's not gonna go very well for them, they're not
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  Speaker 4: actually putting that much bacteria out into the environment for
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  Speaker 4: other people to inhale. So while it can be transmitted
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  Speaker 4: in hospital and household settings, it's actually not like COVID
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  Speaker 4: in the sense that it just spreads rapidly through populations.
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  Speaker 3: So to that point, I mean, just more generally speaking,
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  Speaker 3: what do we need to know about the plague itself?
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  Speaker 4: I mean, it is caused by a bacteria. And typically,
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  Speaker 4: most of the cases of plague, you know, as I mentioned,
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  Speaker 4: this does seem to me like it was a laboratory
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  Speaker 4: acquired case, simply because there was a report that this
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  Speaker 4: researcher had broken a vial or a test tube containing
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  Speaker 4: Yersinia pestis, which is the name of the bacteria that
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  Speaker 4: causes plague. So what people need to know about it
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  Speaker 4: is this is a bacteria. It's usually transmitted to people
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  Speaker 4: not under those circumstances. It's usually transmitted to people through
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  Speaker 4: contact with wild animals, and many of these animals can
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  Speaker 4: become infected, or it's transmitted by flea bites, and that
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  Speaker 4: was what caused the Black Death during the Middle Ages primarily.
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  Speaker 4: It was a lack of sanitation that allowed a lot
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  Speaker 4: of rats to be around, infected with plague. Fleas lived
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  Speaker 4: on those rats and then bit people and gave them
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  Speaker 4: bubonic plague. which is a different form of the same disease.
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  Speaker 4: So really, this comes mostly from animals and nature. And
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  Speaker 4: if people want to prevent or lower their risk, they
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  Speaker 4: just need to be careful about what kind of animals
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  Speaker 4: they're around. And in the United States, that's primarily rodents
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  Speaker 4: and prairie dogs in the West. So most of the
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  Speaker 4: cases have been in the Midwest or in the Western states,
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  Speaker 4: and they're usually related to contact with prairie dogs or
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  Speaker 4: other types of burrowing or ground dwelling rodents.
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  Speaker 1: William Schaffner is a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.
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  Speaker 1: Joining me now from Nashville, Tennessee. Good to have you
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  Speaker 1: on board, sir. Thanks for joining us. First, what do
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  Speaker 1: you make of the incident from what you have read
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  Speaker 1: and what has been reported? This deceased woman had been
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  Speaker 1: diagnosed with a pneumonia of unknown origin, which is, of course,
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  Speaker 1: not necessarily the plague, correct?
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  Speaker 5: Yes, that's correct, Becky. We still need more information about
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  Speaker 5: about the illness that carried this laboratory technician, this investigator, away.
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  Speaker 5: They were working in a plague laboratory. So obviously the
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  Speaker 5: plague bacteria causing, which can cause pneumonia, particularly if there
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  Speaker 5: is a laboratory accident, is under suspicion as the cause.
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  Speaker 5: And we still need a lot more information about the
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  Speaker 5: infection prevention, the infection control activities that should have been
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  Speaker 5: in place in order to actually prevent such an infection
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  Speaker 5: to keep the technicians healthy. But nonetheless, in the meantime,
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  Speaker 5: the contacts of that person are basically in quarantine at
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  Speaker 5: the moment, are being monitored carefully, and should they become ill, Fortunately,
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  Speaker 5: we have antibiotics that can treat this infection if we
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  Speaker 5: get it early.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sure there will be viewers wondering why. So it's
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  Speaker 1: a question I should be putting to you. Why it
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  Speaker 1: is that there is a lab in Siberia on the
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  Speaker 1: border with Mongolia, or certainly as far out as that,
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  Speaker 1: looking into the plague?
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  Speaker 5: Well... Investigators want to know more information about any pathogen,
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  Speaker 5: any germ that can cause illness with the interest of
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  Speaker 5: treating it better and potentially preventing it. It may be
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  Speaker 5: located there because plague continues to occur in that part
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  Speaker 5: of the world and in Africa. And indeed, we even
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  Speaker 5: have a few cases in the United States in the
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  Speaker 5: desert southwest each year. So plague continues to be a
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  Speaker 5: matter of international interest. And so a number of investigators
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  Speaker 5: around the world are working with plague.
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  Speaker 1: Important stuff, William. Thank you for that. The Russian agency
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  Speaker 1: that handles infectious disease has downplayed a link to the
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  Speaker 1: victim's work, saying, and I quote here, no microorganisms associated.
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  Speaker 1: with the employee's professional duties were detected in samples taken
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  Speaker 1: from the patient. Again, what do you read into that?
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  Speaker 1: And there will be concerns that there is a lack
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  Speaker 1: of transparency here. If there are really no microorganisms from
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  Speaker 1: her professional duties associated with her death, doesn't that actually,
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  Speaker 1: to a degree, deepen the mystery and the concern?
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  Speaker 5: Well, it does deepen the mystery, but let's put this
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  Speaker 5: into perspective. People develop pneumonia all over the world, including
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  Speaker 5: in the United States, and we don't always identify the
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  Speaker 5: germ that causes the pneumonia. There are some challenges with
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  Speaker 5: that clinically, and this could potentially have just been a
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  Speaker 5: background case of pneumonia rather than a laboratory-associated plague infection.
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  Speaker 5: But nonetheless, they are dealing with it as though it
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  Speaker 5: might have been plague, which is very important because even
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  Speaker 5: if it is plague, I think the public health authorities
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  Speaker 5: in Russia will confine this and it will be a
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  Speaker 5: very limited public health event.
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  Speaker 1: So in an effort to ensure sort of people feeling
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  Speaker 1: confident about transparency of information here, what do you hope
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  Speaker 1: to hear next as an expert?
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  Speaker 5: Well, I think we would all like to hear much
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  Speaker 5: more information as the information becomes available. What was indeed,
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  Speaker 5: if we know, the cause of death in this woman.
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  Speaker 5: I think it is very likely that she will have
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  Speaker 5: a post-mortem examination and autopsy, which ought to give us
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  Speaker 5: a much better idea of what the events were that
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  Speaker 5: caused her pneumonia and her demise.