Russian and US authorities are closely monitoring contacts of a laboratory worker in Russia who died after they may have been exposed to the pneumonic plague.
The woman, 28, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East and died last week in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk, according to local media.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) says the possible case of pneumonic plague presents “very low” risk outside of Russia as investigators look into what caused the lab employee’s death.
“There is currently no indication that we are dealing with anything similar to the pandemic," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said.
Meanwhile the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has said the “public health risk from plague to the wider UK population currently remains very low”.
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