Russia's pneumonic plague scare: Nearly 200 quarantined after lab worker's death

Nearly 200 people have been placed under medical observation in Russia's Irkutsk region after a laboratory worker died following severe pneumonia, with reports suggesting she may have contracted plague at a research facility in Siberia. Russian authorities, however, have not publicly confirmed that the woman died from pneumonic plague and have described the illness as a “particularly dangerous infection” and pneumonia of “unknown aetiology”.The case involves an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, near the regional capital Irkutsk, according to Russian state-run news agency TASS and reports cited by CNN. According to reports, the 27 or 28-year-old laboratory worker was admitted to a hospital in Shelekhov on Tuesday with severe pneumonia.