ShareCommentsNewsByNeil ShawAssistant Editor08:40, 6 OCT 2026BookmarkGet the latest Plymouth Live breaking news on WhatsAppOur community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info
Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and are monitoring contacts of an employee at a plague research institute in Siberia who contracted pneumonia from an “unknown” cause. Local state TV said the woman died last week. Russian authorities said they found no evidence that her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with. But the case has raised alarm in Russia after unconfirmed media reports suggested she might have died of pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person. The woman worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, south-eastern Siberia. A state TV station in Irkutsk reported on Monday that she died last week in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk. The hospital has been placed under quarantine, Mayor Maxim Modin said, no longer admitting or discharging patients, and its laboratory halted carrying out routine tests. The hospital’s outpatient clinic kept operating as usual, he said. Anna Popova, head of Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Irkutsk and met with governor Igor Kobzev and other officials on Friday. Mr Kobzev said everyone who came into contact with the woman is under medical supervision. He did not identify the infection and called it a suspected case of “a particularly dangerous infection”. Rospotrebnadzor was implementing “a full range of anti-epidemic measures”, he added.