The World Health Organization says it is investigating reports that a worker has died, and another has been infected, after being accidentally exposed to plague at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia. Russia is under pressure to provide answers after lab technician Darya Shipilova, 28, died last week.
Initial media reports suggested her death was caused by pneumonic plague, contracted from a broken test tube, forcing hundreds into quarantine.
The Kremlin has refuted the reports, with spokesperson Dmitry Peskov calling most of it false. Russia’s health watchdog says there is no risk of an epidemic and that Shipilova died of pneumonia of unknown origin.
WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the organization has requested more information on the lab tests and public health measures, and is seeking verification of a second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause. He said the WHO lacks the full picture and cannot yet conduct a full risk assessment.
Al Jazeera’s Julide Ayger reports.
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