How worried should we be about Russia’s suspected plague death?

by · Australian Financial Review

Lena H. Sun and Dan Diamond
Oct 6, 2026 – 4.00pm

After reports that a lab technician’s death was possibly linked to pneumonic plague in Russia, US officials said they are closely watching the situation.

The lab technician is a 28-year-old woman who worked at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, which was set up in the 1930s as an anti-plague body and later expanded its scope to other highly dangerous diseases. The woman died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of “unknown” origin, according to the public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor.

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