There is a plague outbreak in Russia after a lab technician died and hundreds of people she came into contact with were placed in quarantine.
Darya Shipilova, 28, an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia, allegedly broke a test tube containing live plague bacteria on September 25.
She then became unwell while on a field expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, beside Russia’s eastern border with Mongolia.
She was hospitalized with severe pneumonia on September 29 and died overnight between October 1 and October 2.
She came into contact with roughly 200 people, who are now being monitored over fears of an outbreak.
An official with the Trump administration told Axios on Sunday that the administration is ‘aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options.’
Three hospitals in the region have been placed under secure measures, as a mask mandate has been put in place.
Pneumonic plague causes a severe lung infection, with symptoms including fever, shortness of breath and coughing up blood, which typically begin to show between three and seven days after contact.
