World Medical Association urges Russia to be fully transparent over laboratory worker’s death  

Geneva, 12 October 2026

The World Medical Association (WMA) is calling on the Russian authorities to share all available information about the death of a laboratory worker in Siberia. The lack of transparency with global public health partners is of great concern.

Last week, a laboratory worker in Siberia died of pneumonia “of unknown etiology”. Since then, reports of quarantined patients and hospital wards have emerged. The Russian authorities have released very little information about the incident, its presumed cause, or the nature of the research the laboratory worker handled. A possible second case has been reported, but has not been clarified.

Requests for information from the World Health Organization (WHO) to Russia have not produced any results, and the Russian government quickly announced that its investigation into the case is closed.

Since the COVID pandemic, the world has continued to grapple with infectious diseases that have epidemic and pandemic potential, including a current outbreak in East Africa. Not all pathogens have the same potential to cause a large-scale epidemic. Even so, the WMA is greatly concerned by the lack of information and clarity in this case, particularly about the profile of the agent that caused the pneumonia.

In its Statement on Epidemics and Pandemics, the WMA calls on governments to provide prompt, accurate and transparent crisis communication guided by science, and stresses that robust and effective global surveillance is pivotal to preventing and responding to infectious diseases.
The WMA urges the Russian authorities to commit to full transparency, and to share all available information publicly and with WHO. This should cover the nature of the pathogen involved in the death of the laboratory worker, any other potential cases, and the plans for containment and safety protocols at the research facility.

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