Russia denies second infection in suspected pneumonic plague case in Siberia

Russia’s public health watchdog denied Thursday that a lab worker who died in Siberia infected a second person, amid global concerns about suspected pneumonic plague. Rospotrebnadzor rejected reports of another illness as fake, without providing new details on the case. The lab worker at a plague research institute in Irkutsk died Oct. 2 of pneumonia of unknown origin, with extensive testing finding no evidence of pathogens she worked with. The agency informed the World Health Organization that no plague case has been registered in the region. WHO has requested more information on the cause of the severe pneumonia and the pathogen prompting emergency measures. Russian authorities have kept the case secret, with state media largely avoiding the subject and some outlets withdrawing earlier reports.