Donald Trump has weighed in on Russia's plague outbreak with an offer of aid for Vladimir Putin, telling the Russian dictator he is ready to "help" after hundreds of people were hospitalised for observation this week.
The US President said his administration is looking at the situation "very strongly" after it was revealed last week that anti-plague researcher Darya Shipilova, 28, died from exposure to an unknown strain of the deadly disease. She was hospitalised in Shelekhov, in Irkutsk, Siberia in late September before dying of "pneumonia of unknown aetiology", and public health officials have responded by admitting nearly 200 people with whom she is believed to have had contact for observation.
Trump's offer of help
Trump said in his first public comments on the outbreak that his administration would "always help". Speaking to reporters outside the Oval Office on Monday, Trump said he "just heard about it" before offering to help out Russia over what he said was "disproportionately" stronger pneumonia.
He said: "Well, we're looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it, and they call it pneumonia.
"And pneumonia, you know, years ago you could treat pneumonia easier. The microbes and the germs have gotten stronger disproportionately, but we'll help them."
Spread concerns and quarantine
The President's offer comes after Marco Rubio, his secretary of state, outlined concerns the plague, which Ms Shipilova contracted after breaking a flask containing the pathogen at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, "could have spread". It was reported on Monday that 186 people were sent for hospital observation after Ms Shipilova's death over fears of possible contact with the plague.
Several hospitals have also been placed under quarantine restrictions for three weeks, including Irkutsk City Clinical Hospitals Numbers one, three and 10, a maternity unit, and the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children's Hospital.
Rubio said the White House was "monitoring it closely" when quizzed on the outbreak, and outlined fears that the plague could "quickly spread" if it escapes containment. He said: "It seems that there was a worker at the lab that was infected and there's concern that that, you know, could have spread, at least internally - you've seen them do quarantine of this and that nature.
"If something like that gets out, it can quickly spread. So we're watching and monitoring it closely. I don't think it's cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and the cause to just keep an eye on it and we're doing that."
Kremlin and WHO responses
The Kremlin has tried to keep a lid on information about the plague case, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warning members of the public not to listen to "rumours". He said people should only rely on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's official public health agency.
The World Health Organization (WHO), which monitors disease outbreaks worldwide, said that unofficial information indicated the "public health risk to the general population appears to be low".
