Russia denies imposing anti-plague measures after death of worker

A 28-year-old lab technician in Siberia died last week after reportedly contracting pneumonic plague, possibly from a broken test tube at an anti-plague institute, with up to 200 contacts reportedly quarantined. Russian authorities deny imposing special measures and say postmortem tests found no plague pathogens, with the regional governor attributing the death to ‘undetermined’ pneumonia.

The WHO says Russia's official update found no dangerous pathogens among contacts and rates the risk as moderate to low for the city, low for Russia, and very low for the rest of Europe, while still monitoring closely. Secretary of State Rubio demanded Russia be transparent, and Russia's health watchdog responded by offering to help the U.S. with its own measles and plague cases instead.

An international conference on plague and infectious disease is scheduled in Irkutsk this month, which organizers insist was planned in June and has nothing to do with the recent death.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.