The State Department is monitoring reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia and is urging Moscow to share accurate information quickly as details remain unconfirmed.

A State Department official told Fox News that the U.S. is aware of reports of a death in Irkutsk Oblast, a region in southeastern Siberia, and is watching the situation closely with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other federal agencies. The official stressed that many details have not been confirmed and called on Russian authorities to reveal what they know.

Former CIA officer Dan Hoffman told Fox News Digital that the U.S. intelligence community is likely to be collecting all-source intelligence on the incident.

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«I would also expect our embassy in Moscow to be engaging with their diplomatic counterparts at an official level because we might have people in Russia who might be at risk,» Hoffman warned.

«Washington will be speaking to all of our allies and partners in the region and sharing what we know.»

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Plague bacteria (Yersinia pestis) causes bubonic plague and is carried in the pathogen of rats and there are still many regions of the world where the disease occurs.  (iStock)

Pneumonic plague can be treated with common antibiotics, especially when treatment begins early, the official said. Appropriate therapy should begin as soon as plague is suspected, and patients can be treated with intravenous or oral antimicrobials depending on the severity of illness and other factors, according to the CDC.

FILE – A State Department official says the U.S. is tracking reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague case in Russia while pressing Moscow for timely, accurate information. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)

Cases of pneumonic plague occur naturally in many parts of the world, according to the State Department official.

The official said the safety and security of U.S. citizens remains the department’s top priority and encouraged Americans traveling overseas to enroll in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program, or STEP, to receive updates.

Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, son of former President Jair Bolsonaro, won the first round of the Brazilian presidential election tonight, turning in a surprisingly strong showing, and continuing a long run of wins for Latin American Trump-backed right-wing candidates.

Although the race had tightened considerably in the weeks leading up to the election, the vast majority of the polls showed incumbent President Inacio Lula da Silva with a single digit lead.

Bolsonaro will now face off against President Lula da Silva in an October 25 second round election. With 99% of the votes in, Bolsonaro led Lula 47.2% to 44.9%, in a race Lula had widely been expected to win.

LATIN AMERICA’S CONSERVATIVE SHIFT FACES ITS BIGGEST TEST YET IN BRAZIL ELECTION

Tonight, the question on everyone’s mind: how could the pollsters get the results so wrong?

The epic polling failure will serve to give further ammunition to the Brazilian right and the Bolsonaro camp, which have long alleged that the nation’s leading pollsters turn in work biased in favor of Lula and his Workers Party.

The polling situation was similarly unfavorable to Jair Bolsonaro in the 2022 and 2018 elections, but relatively minor in comparison with the disparity in tonight’s electoral results.

Bolsonaro put in an incredibly strong showing in his electoral strongholds in the south of Brazil, winning the country’s three largest states by large margins: 

In Sao Paulo state, the nation’s largest, Bolsonaro led Lula 52% to 38%.

In Minas Gerais, which is Brazil’s historic «bellwether state», Bolsonaro led Lula 48% to 43%, while in his stronghold of Rio de Janeiro, he bested the incumbent president 53% to 39%.

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Lula racked up large margins in his traditional strongholds in the Northeast, where he won vote-rich Bahia, Pernambuco, and Ceara by large margins, but it was not enough to surmount Bolsonaro’s unprecedented electoral strength in Brazil’s south.

President Trump sent a letter to former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro calling for an immediate end to the ‘unjust’ trial against him for allegedly starting a coup. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci and Evaristo Sa/AFP via Getty Images)

Bolsonaro enjoyed a close relationship with Donald Trump through the course of the campaign, who made no secret of his intent to unceremoniously eject longtime geopolitical adversary Lula from office.

Tonight’s surprising result is merely the latest in a long string of right-wing victories across Latin America, which has recently ushered in a red wave of conservative candidates in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, and Bolivia.

The election will undoubtedly prompt a period of soul-searching for the Brazilian left, which may be asking, «Should Lula have run at all?»

At 80 years old, with three presidential terms under his belt, and aspiring to a fourth, Lula was widely viewed as the only contender who could unite the contentious and often-fractured Brazilian left.

President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva speaks during the 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) at the United Nations headquarters on September 23, 2025 in New York City. World leaders convened for the 80th Session of UNGA, with this year’s theme for the annual global meeting being «Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.» (Photo by Taylor Hill/Getty Images)

Lula’s political story marks one of the greatest comebacks in history. Once imprisoned on corruption charges, Lula was freed by the nation’s Supreme Court, and then defeated incumbent Jair Bolsonaro in a heated 2022 election by a razor-thin margin.

Famously, he pledged to serve only one term as president in 2022, and then reneged on that promise. Now, the move seems likely to backfire on him, in what will almost certainly be his last electoral campaign.

Flavio Bolsonaro will now face off against incumbent Lula in a second round election on October 25. Bolsonaro begins the race with several structural advantages.

In addition to vastly outperforming across the country, and proving the pollsters wrong, he is likely to win the vast majority of the votes of the major third-party candidates: Augusto Cury, Renan Santos, Ronaldo Caiado, and Romeu Zema.

Together, these four candidates received nearly 8% of the vote. What remains to be seen is whether any of these candidates will make an endorsement. It is suspected that Caiado and Zema will back Bolsonaro, while Cury and Santos will likely not make an endorsement.

Former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro’s son announces biopic while brother Senator Flávio Bolsonaro enters 2026 presidential race from prison endorsement. (Ton Molina/Getty Images/ Evaristo Sa / AFP via Getty Images)

If elected, Flavio Bolsonaro is all but certain to free his father, and senior Brazilian military officers, who are currently jailed on charges of planning a coup to remain in power following the 2022 election.

The election also saw other members of the Bolsonaro family ushered into higher office: Jair Bolsonaro’s wife, Michelly, was elected senator, as was his son Carlos, while another son, Renan, was elected federal deputy.

Bolsonaro’s Liberal Party also turned in strong results in races for both chambers of Brazil’s Congress, particularly in the Senate, where they are expected to hold 29 seats, compared to just 9 for Lula’s Workers Party.

In Brazil’s lower chamber, the Liberal Party is also expected to hold the greatest number of seats, with 121, while Brazil Fe, a left-wing coalition, is on track to secure 78 seats.

Political analyst Flavio Morgenstern argued, «This election was not about Flavio Bolsonaro vs. Lula. It’s about all of freedom-loving Brazil against the Brazilian Supreme Court. People have no voice in the institutions, and all the power in Brazil is concentrated in the Supreme Court.»

The Brazilian right and the Bolsonaro family have long butted heads with the nation’s Supreme Federal Court, which is dominated by justices appointed by the Workers Party.

While Bolsonaro appears to have the wind in his sails, it is too early to count out Lula in the second round election in three weeks. Lula is renowned as a smart and effective campaigner, and still commands a powerful electoral machinery.

Yet, is winning election to an unprecedented fourth term a feat too daunting for even Lula, the great giant of the Latin American left?