Russia plague outbreak after reported death of lab worker: what you need to know

What happened?A laboratory worker at an anti-plague research institute near Irkutsk, in the Siberian region of Russia, has reportedly died after being diagnosed with a pneumonia of “unknown” origin.She was admitted to hospital on 29 September and placed on a ventilator but died two days later.Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian agency that handles infectious disease, said that authorities had imposed “anti-epidemic measures” in response, according to media reports.12The facility at the hospital where the 28 year old female lab worker was treated has been put into quarantine. According to the independent regional news outlet Liudi Baikala, nearly 200 people are under observation.Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district where the lab is situated, reported that there had been no cases of infectious disease reported among the institute staff over the past 10 days and that all the employees’ recent contacts were being tested.Russian officials initially avoided publicly referring to plague. But…