Russia's public health watchdog denies a second infection in suspected pneumonic plague case

Russia's public health watchdog on Thursday denied that a lab worker who died in Siberia had spread infection to another person, as global concerns swirled about suspected pneumonic plague.Rospotrebnadzor has said that the lab worker at a plague research institute in Irkutsk in southeastern Siberia died of pneumonia of unknown origin. In tersely worded statements, it said that “extensive” testing found no evidence her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with, and it informed the World Health Organization that no case of plague has been registered in the Irkutsk region.In Thursday’s statement, Rospotrebnadzor rejected reports about a second person falling ill after coming into contact with the lab worker as fake. It didn’t offer any new information about the lab worker’s illness and death or reasons behind the sprawling emergency measures in the region.On Wednesday, Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said the U.N. health agency doesn’