Global attention is focusing on a troubling potential outbreak of pneumonic plague after the death of a worker at a Russian “anti-plague” laboratory.  

Authorities have quarantined dozens of people and the head of Russia’s health watchdog has flown to the Irkutsk region of Siberia, despite officially playing down the risk of the plague spreading.

A female laboratory worker at a Siberian plague research institute ‌fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances last week.

US President Donald Trump said Tuesday the death was a “big problem for Russia” and offered to help Moscow deal with it.

“Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help,” he said.

US ‌Secretary of State ‌Marco Rubio said Washington ⁠was closely monitoring the situation amid public health fears on social media.

The World Health Organisation said, based on available information, “the public health risk to the general population appears to be low”.

But it said new risk assessments would be conducted once further information became known.

Local media named the laboratory worker who died as Darya Shipilova, ‌a 28-year-old employee ​at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.

There were conflicting reports about how and where she fell ill, but authorities officially said she ​had died of ‌pneumonia of as-yet unestablished origin.

There are conflicting reports on the cause of Shipilova’s death. Photo: Supplied

Independent local news outlet Lyudi Baikala reported that Shipilova died from pneumonic plague after accidentally breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria on September 25.

Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, told state media the institute had not found evidence of ​any accidents involving the handling of pathogens after rumours spread on social media that the woman had dropped a test tube containing live bacteria.

Nevertheless, Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Siberia for an emergency meeting over the weekend.

Life-threatening plague risk

Plague is endemic to Siberia, location of the first known prehistoric human outbreak, as the ​bacterium that causes it, Yersinia pestis, is present among the small wild mammals in its vast wilderness and their fleas.

However, it is rare for Russians to fall ill with plague, although cases occur every year in other parts of the world, notably Africa.

While most people are familiar with bubonic plague – which is generally spread by fleas and is associated with the devastating “Black Death” plague of the middle ages – pneumonic plague is more troubling.

Pneumonic plague, an infection of the lungs, is spread by human to human via prompts infectious airborne droplets.

If identified quickly, it can be treated with antibiotics. But if left untreated, it can be fatal in ⁠one to six days.

Pneumonic plague is widely regarded as the most rapidly developing and life-threatening form of plague.

Bubonic plague killed as many as 50 million people between 1346-53. Photo: Wikimedia

Once infected, its symptoms initially include chills, fever, body pains, headache, weakness, dizziness and chest discomfort.

According to Russian media reports, about 200 people who had been in ​contact ​with the dead woman were quarantined, parts of the hospital in ​the town of Shelekhov where she died were cordoned off and an aluminium plant ‌told its workers to wear masks.

Rospotrebnadzor, in a later statement quoted by the TASS news agency, said officials in Irkutsk Region had found two cases of Covid and two of rhinoviruses among people who had been in contact with Shipilova. No other cases of infectious diseases were noted.

Authorities urged people to remain calm and said there was no evidence the woman’s death was linked to her work.

-with AAP