REPORTS OF A SECOND WORKER BEING INFECTED AT PLAGUE RESEARCH LABORATORY ARE FALSE

MOSCOW, OCTOBER 8 /SRNA/ - A female worker at a plague research institute in Siberia died of pneumonia of unknown origin, and reports that she infected another person are false, Russia’s Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare, Rospotrebnadzor, said.

The Russian agency stressed that the World Health Organization had been informed that no cases of plague had been registered in the Irkutsk Region.

Rospotrebnadzor said that “extensive” testing had found no evidence that the worker’s illness was caused by any of the pathogens she handled.

The agency dismissed reports that another person had fallen ill following contact with the laboratory worker, calling them false, the PTI news agency reported.

No new details have been released about the worker’s illness and death, nor have authorities explained the extensive emergency measures taken in the region.