Plague research institute worker dies of pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast

An employee of an anti-plague institute has died from pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, leading authorities to place a district hospital under quarantine. The woman had recently returned from a work trip to Buryatia, where a natural focus of the infection among ground squirrels was previously detected near the Mongolian border. The infection status of her colleagues in the department remains unconfirmed.