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Nearly 200 people under observation after Irkutsk lab worker dies from plague

235 points · 211 comments · ericmay

abnry · 1791169150 · focus · HN ↗
How often does this sort of thing happen? I'm guessing more than we think, either because we forget the news stories we read or because it isn't reported.
1. scheme271 · 1791185785 · focus · HN ↗
  A while ago a researcher at the Univ. of Chicago died of the plague. Although most labs use a mutated form that can't get iron needed to reproduce, he had a medical condition that caused an excess of iron in his blood that might have yet the bacteria grow.
  However, every year there's a few deaths in the US from the plague because it's present in a variety of animals. If you look worldwide, there's probably on the order of a thousand deaths annually.
  1. yread · 1791196976 · focus · HN ↗
    Wow a 500$ for an NGS kit to detect it before working there would have been money well spent

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