What is Pneumonic Plague: 200 under watch as Russia scare spotlights deadly infection

Around 200 employees at a Russian anti-plague institute are being monitored after coming into contact with a 27-year-old woman who died following severe pneumonia, amid reports that she may have contracted pneumonic plague.The incident in Irkutsk, a city in eastern Siberia, has raised concerns about a possible outbreak. However, Russian health authorities have said extensive testing has so far found no evidence that the woman was infected with plague or any other microorganism linked to her professional activities.What happened in IrkutskThe woman, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, was admitted to hospital on September 29 with symptoms of severe pneumonia and was placed on a ventilator.She died overnight between October 1 and 2.On October 2, The Moscow Times reported that an emergency meeting of the Sanitary and Anti-Epidemic Commission was held jointly by Irkutsk region governor Igor Kobzev and Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's national public health and…