Russian lab worker dies of suspected plague as 200 enter medical observation

Almost 200 people are under medical observation in Russia’s Siberia region after the death of a 28-year-old lab worker who may have been exposed to pneumonic plague, according to local media reports.

While Russian authorities have not confirmed her exact cause of death, the country’s consumer welfare service said Sunday that the researcher at an anti-plague institute in Irkutsk had died of “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” or origin. It said the “sanitary-epidemiological situation” in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov was “stable.”

The incident prompted health officials to place nearly 200 people who had been in contact with the researcher under precautionary medical observation, according to Russian media reports, which cited a regional leader. Maksim Modin, mayor of the Shelekhov municipal district near the border with Mongolia, said Friday that the inpatient facility where the researcher was treated had been closed for quarantine.

The pneumonic form of plague is especially contagious and “can trigger severe epidemics,” according to the World Health Organization. The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday about the suspected case in Russia.

The State Department said it was closely monitoring the situation along with the Centers for Disease…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business