What to know about pneumonic plague after Russian lab worker's death

A laboratory worker in Siberia, Russia, has died from pneumonia of unknown origin, prompting concern and close monitoring by the US. The 28-year-old woman, Darya Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. Russian authorities have imposed quarantines and other measures at several medical facilities in the region.

According to the World Health Organization, there is little cause for concern, and testing has found no connection between the woman's work and her cause of death. The disease, which is being investigated, could be pneumonic plague, one of three forms of the plague, which can be curable with common antibiotics if caught early.

The US is monitoring the situation, while Russia has downplayed reports, stressing that post-mortem tests did not detect the plague. Central Asian countries, including Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, have tightened sanitary controls at the border.

Brief written by urgent.news from PBS NewsHour Health, Vox, France 24, The Insider, ABC News AU — 5 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.