Suspected plague case puts Russia on alert

Nearly 200 people in eastern Siberia are under medical observation following the death of a Russian laboratory worker who was reportedly exposed to the bacteria that causes plague.

Before visions of medieval Europe start dancing in your head: Russian officials say none of the people being monitored have shown signs of illness, and their laboratory tests have come back negative.

A look under the microscope

On September 25, a 28-year-old worker at an anti-plague research institute in Russia's Irkutsk region reportedly broke a test tube containing the pathogen that causes pneumonic plague.

• She was hospitalized four days later with severe pneumonia and died overnight between October 1-2.
• Authorities subsequently imposed quarantines at several medical facilities and placed everyone who had contact with Shipilova under ongoing observation.

America is keeping tabs on the situation. The White House “is aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options,” a Trump admin official told Axios.

In the know: Plague remains endemic in parts of the world, including some of the western US, but can be treated with antibiotics if identified quickly. It comes in many forms, with the recent case in Russia appearing to be pneumonic plague, where the bacteria infect the lungs. The infection is “fairly transmissible, but not as transmissible as SARS2/COVID,” one expert told CNBC.