A worker at a research laboratory that aims to protect against plague epidemics died recently.
By Catholics for Catholics
The Russian government has quarantined a medical center and are examining the contacts of an employee at a plague research organization in Siberia who contracted pneumonia of an “unknown” cause.
Local state TV said the woman died last week.
Still, Russian authorities said they found no proof that her illness was triggered by any of the pathogens she worked with. But the case has caused concern in Russia after unconfirmed media reports suggested she might have died of pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.
The worker, a woman labored at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, southeastern Siberia, according to a story by the Epoch Times. A state TV station in Irkutsk reported Monday that she died last week in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk.
The Epoch Times reported that U.S. officials are tracing a possible plague case in Russia, they confirmed on Oct. 5.
“CDC is monitoring the situation closely with the State Department and our other interagency partners,” a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, the parent agency of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told The Epoch Times in an email.
“The safety and security of U.S. citizens is our highest priority,” the spokesperson added.
In addition, Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s consumer protection agency reported over the weekend that a worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in southeastern Siberia was diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” according to the Interfax news agency.
Established in 1934 to work on plague control, the center has 95 scientific employees, including 13 doctors, according to its website. Its task includes protecting against epidemics, including epidemics of plague.
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