AP
Russia Disease
A woman with her child walks past the building of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, Russia, on Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2026.
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A top official with the World Health Organization says the U.N. health agency doesn’t know how a lab employee in Siberia died amid concerns about plague, and she called on Russia to provide more information. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of epidemic and pandemic Management, said the agency doesn’t know what the 'causative agent’ was behind the woman’s Oct. 2 death, and “this is why we need more information.”
