Russia rejects report of second suspected plague case

Russian authorities have dismissed reports of a second suspected pneumonic plague case at a research institute in Siberia, while the World Health Organization is seeking more information about a worker who died from pneumonia of unknown cause. The illness has not been confirmed as plague, and the reported second case remains unverified. The 28-year-old woman worked at a plague research institute in the Irkutsk region and died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown aetiology, Russian authorities acknowledged on Sunday. Russia’s health regulator said no infections had been detected among institute staff after her death. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, asked about reports of another employee with pneumonia, said on Wednesday that most media reporting about the situation was false information. He urged people to rely on statements from Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor. The Russian government has said the sanitary and epidemiological situation is stable, but the cause of the worker’s illness remains unknown.