Rubio urges Russia to share details of suspected plague case

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged Russia to share more information about a suspected plague infection in Siberia, saying it was too early to draw conclusions. He made the comments at a meeting with Icelandic Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir at Safnahúsið, a building where the meeting was held, according to mbl.is.

Rubio said the United States could respond appropriately if it knew what had happened, but that it was now up to Russia to share information. He was answering a question from a New York Times journalist.

Reports emerged on Friday that a suspected case of pneumonic plague may have killed 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, who worked at a laboratory in Siberia’s Irkutsk region. The outlet People of Baikal cited unnamed sources saying she was infected after a test tube broke.

Russian authorities have played down a connection between the death and plague, stressing that the disease was not detected during an autopsy. Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev said Tuesday that a special commission had concluded the cause of death was pneumonia of unknown origin.

Rubio said he hoped the United States would have more information in the coming hours or days.