WHO confirms death at Russian research lab, says no plague case registered

On Saturday, the World Health Organization said that Russia’s state health regulator confirmed the death of an employee at a Siberian facility and had informed the WHO that no case of plague had been registered.

A laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia became ill and died in unforeseen circumstances on October 2, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people and causing public health anxieties on social media.

The authorities also indicated an absence of biosafety protocol violations within the contaminated facility confirming that there have been no further cases of severe pneumonia linked to the employee's death.

The NFP informed WHO that the case and all contacts had been tested for a wide variety of microorganisms including high-threat pathogens.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia informed the World Health Organization about the death of a laboratory worker at a Siberian plague research facility that occurred last week as per standard operating procedures, accusing the media of providing misinformation about the case. The watchdog said that no plague infections have been identified among anyone who had come into contact with the deceased and locals said their lives had hardly changed

The World Health Organization will continue to track developments and evaluate public health risks as new data emerges.