What happened
A Russian scientist, Darya Shipilova, 28, died of severe pneumonia, according to the World Health Organization. Initial reports suggested she may have been exposed to the plague bacterium, yersinia pestis, during a lab accident at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia.
Russian officials have downplayed the incident, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov urging people to trust official information from the state health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor. The agency has said it carried out anti-epidemic measures, including testing nearly 200 people who came into contact with Shipilova, and found no pathogens causing dangerous infections.
The agency attributed Shipilova's death to pneumonia of unknown origin, contradicting initial reports that she died of the pneumonic plague. Local officials had initially warned people not to visit the town of Shelekhov, where Shipilova was hospitalized, citing unofficial information about a human plague case, but later deleted the warning.
The World Health Organization has said the public health risk to the general public appears to be low, based on available information. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also said the reports are not cause for alarm, but rather for focus, and that the U.S. is keeping an eye on the situation.
