WHO says no plague case registered after Russian lab worker’s death

What the report says

The World Health Organization said it has not registered any confirmed plague case after the death of a laboratory worker at a Russian antiplague research institute in Siberia, according to reporting by Al Jazeera. The agency said the cause of the woman’s pneumonia remains unconfirmed, which it described as the main unresolved issue, and added that it has seen no evidence of continuing transmission.

Russia’s state health regulator told the WHO that tests on the worker and on people who had contact with her were negative for the pathogens under review. The WHO also said her contacts have shown no symptoms, and no additional severe pneumonia cases linked to the event have been identified. Russian authorities said they completed checks on her contacts and shared the information with the UN health agency.

The case drew attention after the worker died on October 2 and about 200 people were placed in quarantine, amid early concerns about pneumonic plague, a serious infection caused by Yersinia pestis. Russian media identified the worker as a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute, while officials later said she had been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause and that post-mortem tests did not detect plague. The episode comes against a broader backdrop of heightened vigilance over unexplained respiratory illnesses since the COVID-19 pandemic.