The World Health Organization (WHO) said today it was cooperating with Russian authorities after the death of a laboratory assistant at the Institute for Combating Plague in Russia's Irkutsk region in Siberia was reported, Agence France-Presse reported.
"The initial UN risk assessment, based on available information, indicates that the risk is moderate to low for Irkutsk, low for the Russian Federation as a whole and very low for the European region," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a news conference in Geneva.
The WHO, quoted by Reuters, said Russian authorities had identified all people who had been in contact with the deceased laboratory assistant.