Lithuania may restrict Russian transit if plague threat is confirmed

Lithuania may restrict the transit of Russian citizens through the country if a reported pneumonic plague case in Russia is confirmed and considered a threat, Health Minister Linas Kukuraitis said Wednesday, according to Lithuanian public broadcaster LRT.

“If we saw even the slightest threat, we would raise the issue, and decisions would then be made jointly,” Kukuraitis said.

He said any measures would be coordinated with the European Union. Lithuania has procedures and sufficient medication reserves to respond to a possible outbreak, he added.

Kukuraitis said reports of a pneumonic plague case in Russia had not been independently confirmed, describing the situation as concerning while seeking to reassure the public.

Lithuania’s National Public Health Centre said there was currently no increased risk of plague infection in the country and that it could not independently confirm the reported case.

Reports emerged Friday that a 28-year-old woman who worked at a plague research institute in Russia’s Irkutsk region had died of pneumonic plague. Russian officials said tests conducted after her death did not detect the disease.

The World Health Organization said Tuesday that authorities were investigating whether pneumonic plague caused the woman’s death. No official cause of death had been confirmed.

All of the woman’s contacts have been identified and are being monitored, the WHO said, adding that none had shown symptoms. Its initial assessment placed the risk at moderate to low in Irkutsk, low across Russia and very low in the WHO European region.