WHO issues update on investigation into Russian plague lab worker’s death
Por Gnaneshwar Rajan and Alessandra Prentice — – World RSS Feed
WHO issues update on investigation into Russian plague lab worker’s death
The World Health Organisation says no case of plague has been registered
Gnaneshwar Rajan & Alessandra Prentice Sunday 11 October 2026 07:47 BST
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The World Health Organisation (WHO) has said it still does not know what caused the pneumonia that killed a Russian lab worker at an anti-plague research centre in Siberia this month.
On Saturday, the UN health agency said no case of plague has been registered.
The lab worker fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances on October 2, prompting authorities to quarantine about 200 people.
The WHO said the Russian state regulator reported that tests of the lab worker and those who came in contact with her were negative for the high-threat pathogens tested, that her contacts still showed no symptoms, and that no further linked cases of severe pneumonia had been identified.
“Based on the information provided … (the) WHO has not identified evidence of ongoing transmission associated with this event. A key uncertainty remains the absence of a confirmed diagnosis in the deceased laboratory worker,” it said.
The WHO, in its first full Disease Outbreak News (DONs) update since the case emerged earlier this month, called for a continued investigation.
“Additional clinical, epidemiological and laboratory information, including confirmation of the diagnosis in the deceased laboratory worker, is required to improve confidence in the assessment,” it added.
It did cite initial, unconfirmed reports suggesting the death was linked to the pneumonic plague, a severe disease less common than the better-known bubonic plague linked to the Black Death in the Middle Ages. Pneumonic plague spreads from person to person, causing a severe form of pneumonia, but recovery rates are high if it is detected and treated in time.
Global health officials have been extra alert to fatal pneumonia cases of undetermined cause since the COVID-19 pandemic, which began with a cluster of fast-spreading fatal respiratory illness in China. The cause of individual pneumonia cases can often not be determined.
Russian authorities have said the lab worker was appropriately vaccinated and that they found no microorganisms linked to her work in her body.
On Thursday, Russia also said it had completed health checks on all the worker’s contacts. It says it had provided full information to the WHO, in line with established procedures.
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RussiaGenevaSerbiaWorld Health OrganisationSiberiaplague
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