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Map Shows Countries Hit by Plague as Russian Lab Worker Dies
A map by the World Health Organization (WHO) outlines the plague's reach over the last seven years after it was reported that a laboratory worker in Russia had died from the disease. Russian media outlets said that a woman who worked for a plague research institute near Irkutsk in Siberia had told her colleagues she had accidentally broken a test tube with live bacteria while collecting samples for testing. She was later hospitalized and died, it was reported, although Russia's authorities have not confirmed that the plague was the cause of death. Read More on World The case was reported to be pneumonic, or lung-based plague, which according to the WHO is the most virulent form of the disease and can be transmitted via respiratory particles to other humans. Newsweek has contacted the Russian health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor and the WHO for comment. What Are the Kinds of Plague and Where Are They Reported? According to the WHO, there are three main clinical forms of plague infection—bubonic, pneumonic and septicaemic. The health body said that as an animal disease, plague is found on all continents, except Oceania. There is a risk of the disease wherever the presence of plague bacterium, Yersinia...
