Russia informed the World Health Organization (WHO) that an employee of a Siberian research laboratory who died on October 2 was not infected with plague. At the same time, the organization still has not received specific data on what caused the pneumonia from which the woman died, Reuters reports, writes UNN.
Details
According to the WHO, the Russian side denied the assumption that the laboratory worker had been infected with pneumonic plague. However, the origin of the illness remains undetermined, and detailed information about the results of the medical examinations is currently unavailable.
Following the laboratory technician's death, reports emerged of possible infection with a dangerous disease. The situation raised concern over the risk of pneumonic plague spreading, and it was previously reported that quarantine measures had been introduced.
WHO still awaits specific explanations
This week, the World Health Organization asked the Russian authorities for information about the circumstances of the laboratory worker's death and a possible epidemiological threat.
Despite receiving a response that there was no plague, the WHO still lacks sufficient information to establish the cause of the illness. Thus, the Russian authorities deny infection with the particularly dangerous disease, but the question of the origin of the pneumonia remains open.
Pneumonic plague is one of the most dangerous forms of plague and can be transmitted between people through infected droplets released when coughing. At the same time, there is currently no confirmed data that the employee of the Russian laboratory was infected with this disease.