Nearly 200 people in Russia's Irkutsk region are under medical observation after an employee of an anti-plague research institute fell ill and died, local reports say.
By the numbers: 189 people who had contact with the worker are being monitored, per Moscow Times reporting cited by CNBC, and authorities imposed quarantines at several medical facilities in the Irkutsk region.
The backstory: Daria Shipilova, 28, broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen on September 25, local reports told Axios. She was admitted to a hospital on September 29 and died overnight between October 1 and October 2.
- Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighboring Republic of Buryatia, said the woman had died from an unspecified form of plague.
Yes, but: Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's public health watchdog, said Sunday that she had been diagnosed with "pneumonia of unknown etiology" and that expanded testing found no microorganisms linked to her work.
- The agency said the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov remains stable, and Irkutsk's governor, Igor Kobzev, said those monitored tested negative and showed no signs of illness.
Between the lines: The White House is tracking the episode. A Trump administration official told Axios the administration is "aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options."
Zoom in: Russian media reported that Shipilova had returned from a work trip to Buryatia, where an outbreak had been reported near the border with Mongolia.
- CNBC said Russia's health ministry, the World Health Organization and the US State Department had yet to respond to requests for comment.
Why it matters: Plague is a potentially life-threatening bacterial disease that antibiotics can cure when treatment starts promptly, per the CDC, so the gap between Moscow's "stable" framing and 189 monitored contacts is what outside health officials are watching.
