Russia ‘pneumonic plague’: What we know about the quarantine in Siberia after a researcher’s death

U.S. investigators are closely monitoring reports that dozens of people are in quarantine after the death of a Russian laboratory worker studying the plague in Siberia.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the State Department, the Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response, and other U.S. government agencies are trying to determine what happened after a 28-year-old female lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died after being diagnosed with pneumonia of “unknown” origin, per Russia’s infection disease agency Rospotrebnadzor, as reported by CNN.

On Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters that Russian officials said other workers could be affected. “We’re watching and monitoring it closely,” he said. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause to just keep an eye on it.”

The lab technician’s cause of death remains unclear. One Russian news outlet reported that she “allegedly broke a test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen” on Friday, September 25, and died at a hospital soon after.

In the meantime, nearly 200 people who may have come in contact with the researcher are now under medical observation, NBC News reported.

Rospotrebnadzor announced that the mayor of Shelekhov, the town at the epicenter of the potential outbreak, has enacted a “comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures,” The Washington Post reported. The district is located in far eastern Siberia, near the Mongolian border.

“Plague is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis” and “is spread to people through bites from infected rodent fleas or, less often, direct contact with an infected animal,” according to the CDC. “It can be cured with antibiotics, but treatment must be given quickly,” the CDC adds.

The most common forms of plague are bubonic, pneumonic, and septicemic. The “Black Death,” as it is known, was a pandemic said to be caused by the plague, which swept across Europe in the 14th century, killing tens of millions of people.

Pneumonic plague develops when bacteria spreads to the lungs of a patient with untreated bubonic or septicemic plague. It’s the most serious form of the disease and is the only type that can spread between people, often through respiratory droplets. According to the CDC, its incubation period can be as short as one day.