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The World Health Organization said on Tuesday that it considers the public health risk in Russia to be "low", and "very low" for Europe. But that has not stopped fears and misinformation from spreading on social media.
Russian media identified the woman who died as 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, a laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East. The exact circumstances of her death remain unclear, although reports say she died two days after falling ill at work.
Several theories have emerged online about how she may have become sick. One claims she dropped a test tube containing live pathogens at the laboratory. Others suggest she fell ill following a field trip near the Mongolian border, or after travelling to Thailand.
There is currently no evidence supporting any of these theories, as they remain unconfirmed.
The governor of Russia's Irkutsk region, citing the country's health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, rejected the claim that Shipilova had been exposed to pathogens in a laboratory accident. He said microorganisms associated with work had not been detected in her samples, and that no disease-related cases had been reported among employees at the institute over the previous 10 days.
The head of the neighbouring Republic of Buryatia in Russia also addressed speculation that Shipilova had travelled there. In a post on Telegram, he said she had not visited the region and that the source of the infection was "unrelated" to...
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