U.S. Embassy Issues Russia Plague Update for Americans
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0 Share Newsweek is a Trust Project member See more of our trusted coverage when you search. Prefer Newsweek on Google to see more of our trusted coverage when you search. The U.S. Embassy in Russia is tracking press reports of a suspected pneumonic plague death and associated hospital closures and quarantine measures in the Irkutsk region.
An embassy statement on Tuesday did not constitute a new travel warning or change the State Department ’s existing Level 4 advisory, which tells Americans not to travel to Russia for any reason. The advisory, issued December 29, 2025, cites terrorism, unrest, wrongful detention and other risks.
"The U.S. government has limited ability to help U.S. citizens in Russia, especially outside of Moscow," the alert read. "The State Department’s Level 4 Travel Advisory [Do Not Travel] for Russia remains in place and states U.S. citizens currently in Russia should depart immediately. U.S. citizens planning travel to Russia are again strongly advised not to travel to Russia due to risk of wrongful detention and security concerns."
The World Health Organization ( WHO ) said Russian authorities reported that no plague case had been recorded in Irkutsk in a statement emailed to Newsweek . However, the official cause of the death of a laboratory worker remained unconfirmed as of Tuesday.
The episode has attracted international attention because initial media reports linked Daria Shipilova's death to pneumonic plague, a form of the disease that affects the lungs and can spread through respiratory particles.
The WHO said pneumonic plague can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours of symptoms appearing if left untreated, but common antibiotics can effectively cure the infection when administered early.
Despite the uncertainty, the WHO’s initial assessment found the public health risk to be “moderate to low” for Irkutsk, low for Russia overall and very low for the WHO European region. The agency said the assessment could change as it received additional information.
Related Story Russian ‘Plague’ Update: Experts Warn of Possible Biological Agent U.S. Embassy Update In a post on X, the State Department’s TravelGov account said: “Irkutsk, Russia: The U.S. Embassy is aware of press reports from the Irkutsk region of suspected pneumonic plague resulting in the death of an individual and of associated quarantine measures in, and closures of, hospitals in Irkutsk. We continue to track the situation closely.”
The statement attributed the suspected plague death , quarantines and hospital closures to press reports. It did not independently confirm those claims or announce a change to U.S. travel guidance.
The State Department’s broader advisory remains at Level 4, “Do not travel.” It also says U.S. citizens in Russia should leave immediately and warns that the U.S. government has limited capacity to assist citizens, particularly outside Moscow.
The WHO said its monitoring system detected media reports on October 2 of a suspected pneumonic plague death in Irkutsk Oblast. On October 3, the organization contacted Russian health authorities under the International Health Regulations to request details about the death, laboratory testing, contact tracing and possible international public health implications.
Russian authorities responded on Tuesday and said the woman’s illness initially presented as a typical acute respiratory viral infection. They also reported that no plague case had been recorded in Irkutsk and that tests detected no dangerous infectious-disease pathogens among her contacts.
The WHO said none of the identified contacts had shown symptoms of the illness under investigation at the time of its Tuesday briefing.
Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, said the scale of the reported response did not appear consistent with what would normally be expected for plague.
“The way they were reacting to the cases in terms of the contacts, the hospital, the hazmat suits, the head of their equivalent of the CDC flying there, was incongruent with the plague response,” Adalja told Newsweek by phone on Tuesday.
Adalja said plague remains treatable with modern antibiotics and that facilities working with plague would ordinarily have protocols for providing exposed workers with preventive antibiotics.
“Plague might be a lot of clickbait. People get really excited about it, but it’s a treatable disease of the 21st century,” Adalja said.
Shipilova was a 28-year-old employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. Internal reporting identified her as a laboratory technician.
Russian authorities said she died from pneumonia of an undetermined origin. Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said testing found no microorganisms in her body linked to her work at the institute.
Russian media reports alleged that Shipilova became ill after a laboratory accident involving Yersinia pestis , the bacterium that causes plague. Those claims have not been officially confirmed, and the WHO said no cause of death had been established as of Tuesday.
The WHO said her workplace studies dangerous pathogens, including plague, in an area where the disease occurs naturally in wild animals.
Some experts have focused on why authorities reportedly adopted extensive containment measures if the illness was not plague.
Adalja pointed to the Soviet Union’s history of offensive biological weapons research and said some anti-plague institutes worked with multiple pathogens.
“The Soviet Union had an offensive biological weapons program at the scale that went back decades and decades, and some of those anti-plague institutes were part of that program,” Adalja said. “Just because there’s plague on the door doesn’t mean that’s the only thing they work on.”
Adalja also referenced the 2018 Novichok poisoning in Salisbury, England.
“We know that they’ve used novel nerve agents in England,” he said.
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