Hundreds in Russia Quarantined Amid Fears of Plague Spread

Russian media reported Sunday that a laboratory worker died at a hospital in Siberia after contracting plague when a test tube broke in the lab.

The woman worked at an infectious-disease research institute in the city of Irkutsk in eastern Siberia, about 2,600 miles from Moscow. The hospital where she died has been placed under lockdown, and according to the governor of the Irkutsk region, everyone who came into contact with her is under medical observation.

According to the independent Russian news site Meduza, Anna Popova, the head of Russia's public health authority, arrived in the area. Russian media reported that around 200 people who came into contact with the woman were placed under observation. According to the reports, she contracted pneumonic plague, the form of the disease that can spread from person to person.

It should be noted that plague is an infectious disease caused by bacteria and affects rodents and humans. Plague has three forms, with different symptoms, but all affect the lungs. Under certain conditions, plague can erupt into a mass epidemic with a high mortality rate.