Moscow on Monday downplayed reports that a laboratory technician had died of plague, stressing that post-mortem tests had not detected the disease, while Washington said it was closely monitoring the situation.
Reports on Friday that plague had killed a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working for the anti-plague institute in Siberia's Irkutsk region, sparked alarm. The news outlet People of Baikal, citing sources close to the regional security services, said she may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube.
