“There is no reason for panic or creating false alarm,” said Georgian Minister of Health Mikheil Sarjveladze, commenting on reports of a plague case detected in Russia. According to him, the site of the incident is located very far from Georgia, meaning the risk is minimal.
“Our National Center for Disease Control and the Ministry are naturally closely monitoring the news and all incoming developments in this regard. A global cooperation platform such as the World Health Organization serves as our primary source of information. Based on these data, I can say that there are no grounds for panic or whipping up false hype.
There is absolutely no apparent need to adopt any measures, and there are no recommendations to that effect. That is the situation as of today. The region where this data originates is located very far from Georgia, and taking into account travel frequency factors, the introduction of any measures is not required. Naturally, should any threats arise, we are immediately prepared to take any necessary action to protect the population of Georgia from such risks,” Sarjveladze stated.
As a reminder, media reports earlier emerged that on October 2, Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died of pneumonic plague at a district hospital in the Russian town of Shelekhov. According to one account of how she became infected, a test tube containing the infectious pathogen had accidentally broken.
Rospotrebnadzor (Russia’s Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing) denies these reports, asserting that Shipilova died from “pneumonia of undetermined etiology” and that no pathogens linked to her professional duties were detected in her system. The agency also emphasized that no incidents involving hazardous biological materials had occurred at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.
Several countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, have already tightened sanitary controls at their borders amid reports of the death of the anti-plague institute employee in Russia.
