WHO still lacks cause of Russian lab worker’s fatal pneumonia
Why it matters: About 200 contacts were quarantined, but WHO said no plague case or ongoing transmission has been identified.
The World Health Organization said Oct. 10 it still does not know what caused the pneumonia that killed a laboratory worker at Russia’s Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia. WHO said Russia reported negative tests for the woman and her contacts for the high-threat pathogens examined, no symptoms among those contacts and no additional linked cases of severe pneumonia. The 28-year-old worker died on Oct. 2, fueling online speculation about a possible lab leak. Russian authorities have said she was vaccinated appropriately and that no microorganisms tied to her work were found in her body. WHO said the main unresolved issue is the lack of a confirmed diagnosis.