Russia denies second plague case after Siberian lab worker's death

Russia's public health watchdog denied Thursday that a lab worker who died in Siberia had infected another person, amid global concerns about suspected pneumonic plague. Rospotrebnadzor dismissed reports of a second illness as fake, saying extensive testing found no plague case in the Irkutsk region. The lab worker at a plague research institute died Oct. 2 of pneumonia of unknown origin, with unconfirmed reports blaming pneumonic plague, a severe form spreadable between people. The World Health Organization said it doesn't know the cause and has requested more information from Russia. The institute, founded about a century ago to study plague in Siberia, has faced tight secrecy around the case, with state media largely avoiding the topic. Rospotrebnadzor said the worker was vaccinated and that safety probes found no violations.