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Uzbekistan’s epidemiological situation with respect to plague remains stable and there is no reason for public concern, the first deputy chairman of the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Wellbeing and Public Health, Nurmat Atabekov, said on 9 October. The Health Ministry published his statement in response to reports of a suspected plague case in Russia’s Irkutsk region.
Atabekov noted that Russia’s public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor had not confirmed that the death of a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute was linked to plague, including its pneumonic form. The official diagnosis remains pneumonia of unknown etiology. Despite the uncertainty, Russian authorities placed approximately 200 people under medical observation and isolation as a precaution.
Border controls and laboratory readiness
Atabekov said Uzbekistan operates 53 sanitary control points at state border crossings, covering international airports, railway stations and road checkpoints, where people entering the country are kept under continuous medical observation. Laboratories run by regional sanitary and epidemiological services and specialising in particularly dangerous infectious diseases are equipped with the necessary diagnostic tools, reagents and chemicals, he added.
“Uzbekistan has established a system of measures aimed at preventing the entry and spread of plague and other particularly dangerous infectious diseases from abroad,” Atabekov said.
WHO assessment
On 6 October the World Health Organization said it was closely monitoring developments in the Irkutsk region. In its initial assessment, the WHO rated the risk of plague spreading within Russia as low and the risk to the broader WHO European Region — which includes Uzbekistan — as very low.
Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, typically found in small mammals and the fleas that feed on them. The pneumonic form, which occurs when the bacterium infects the lungs, is the most contagious variant and can spread between people through the respiratory route. The WHO has noted that pneumonic plague can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours of symptom onset if untreated, but that early diagnosis and modern antibiotics can stabilise patients rapidly.
The Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute is one of several specialised facilities in Russia that studies and stores samples of dangerous pathogens, making the circumstances of the employee’s death a matter of particular scrutiny for health authorities in the region.