What to know about plague amid reports of Russian lab worker’s death

October 6, 2026 / 2:47 PM EDT / CBS News

U.S. and world health officials are calling on Russia to share more information after Russian media reports said a scientist at an infectious disease research facility in Siberia died after possibly contracting plague during a lab accident.

The reports have caused concern, even as the World Health Organization says "the public health risk to the general population appears to be low," based on the current information.

Dr. Céline Gounder, a CBS News medical contributor and editor-at-large for public health at KFF Health News, echoed that belief on "CBS Mornings" on Tuesday.

"The American public does not need to be worried," she said.

Still, an official cause of death has not been made public and a lack of transparency from Russia has led some experts to question if the lab worker had the plague.

"The response doesn't fit plague. It's not congruent with plague," Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, told CBS News. "Plague is something, in the 21st century, that's treatable with antibiotics."

Russian media has reported that a female researcher, identified as Darya Shipilova, 28, died after being exposed to the…

Original source: https://www.cbsnews.com/entertainment/