Siberia lab worker's plague death triggers quarantine of dozens

A laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia has died of pneumonia of unknown origin, prompting authorities to quarantine dozens of contacts and dispatch Russia's health watchdog chief to the Irkutsk region. Officials say the situation is under control. The 28-year-old woman, named locally as Darya Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute. Rospotrebnadzor found no evidence of pathogen-handling accidents, though social media rumors had suggested a test tube breach. All known contacts have been traced, examined, and placed under medical supervision. Plague is endemic to Siberia, with Yersinia pestis present among wild mammals, though human cases are rare in Russia. The woman died of pneumonic plague, a lung infection that can be fatal within one to six days if untreated but is curable with antibiotics.