“In December #TrevorReed had extended publicity to a different prisoner with lively tuberculosis. Trevor now experiences he’s coughing up blood and has not acquired medical look after it. @mfa_russia give Trevor correct medical remedy; higher but, launch him,” a US Embassy spokesperson wrote on Twitter.
The households of each Reed and Paul Whelan, one other US citizen detained in Russia, have expressed concern for his or her well-being, notably as tensions between Moscow and Washington rise.
A spokesperson for Reed’s household mentioned his publicity to tuberculosis got here late final yr, including that the previous US Marine has not acquired sufficient medical care.
“Trevor Reed was subjected to a prolonged, close-contact publicity to a prisoner who had lively TB in December – that prisoner grew to become gravely in poor health shortly after his encounter with Trevor. Despite starting post-exposure prophylaxis for different inmates, Russian authorities have refused to do the identical for Trevor and have so far refused to check him,” mentioned household spokesperson Jonathan Franks.
“Trevor continues to complain about ache in his chest (associated to respiration, not his coronary heart) and authorities proceed to refuse him any medical remedy by any means. Any suggestion by Russian authorities that they’ve supplied Trevor significant medical care is patently false,” Franks mentioned.
A State Department spokesperson expressed concern about experiences that Reed “had extended publicity to a different prisoner with lively tuberculosis and discover the shortage of medical consideration and care troubling.” The spokesperson added that the US urges the Russian authorities present Reed correct medical remedy.
CNN has reached out to the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service (FSIN) for remark.
The final time US officers visited with Reed, who was sentenced to 9 years in jail in July 2020, was late final yr. He has not been in a position to name dwelling for greater than 200 days.
Whelan, one other former Marine who’s at a special penal colony far exterior Moscow, advised CNN final yr that “getting medical care right here may be very tough.”
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has repeatedly known as for the discharge of the detained Americans throughout discussions with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“We want to speak about two US residents, Paul Whelan and Trevor Reed, who had been vacationers in Russia, had been arrested, convicted with out credible proof, and we once more ask Russia to do the suitable factor and allow them to come dwelling,” Blinken mentioned in remarks earlier than his newest in-person assembly with Lavrov in January.
In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union on Sunday, US nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan mentioned that “the Russians have been prepared to have interaction in numerous channels to debate a approach” to get Whelan and Reed dwelling.
“And we’re actively engaged in an effort to try this. And I’m not going to share extra right here due to the plain sensitivity of it. But we wish to get Paul and Trevor dwelling as quickly as potential,” he mentioned.