俄罗斯鼠疫研究所研究员实验事故后死亡，官方否认是鼠疫，却隔离了近两百人

A 28-year-old woman worked in a laboratory.

On September 25th, a test tube in her hand broke.

A week later, she died.

The lab where she worked is in Siberia, Russia, where it's extremely cold.

This lab studies a terrifying disease called plague.

To research means to keep looking and keep asking, wanting to know how something works.

You may have read about plague in history books.

Seven hundred years ago, many people in Europe got plague, and nearly one in every three people died.

Today, plague is not so frightening anymore, because we have antibiotics.

Antibiotics are a kind of medicine that can kill harmful things in your body.

If people with plague take antibiotics early, most of them can get better.

But without medicine, plague can kill many people.

One kind of plague is in the lungs; when people talk or cough, they can pass it to others.

This kind of plague is the most dangerous.

Now, back to that woman.

Her name was Darya; on September 25th, while she was working, a test tube broke.

Some Russian news reports said the tube held exactly this lung plague.

On September 29th, her lungs felt very bad and she went to the hospital.

On October 2nd, she died.

But the Russian government said: she did not have plague.

The government said she had pneumonia of unknown cause, unrelated to her work.

Pneumonia means the lungs are sick.

But what the government did made many people doubt it.

Nearly two hundred people who had contact with her were all quarantined.

Quarantine means you stay alone, can't see other people, and a doctor checks on you every day.

More than sixty colleagues at the lab were shut inside the building and could not go home.

Several hospitals stopped letting other people in, even a maternity hospital.

Many people asked: if it isn't plague, why do this?

America is also very concerned.

America asked Russia: what actually happened?

The WHO, the World Health Organization, also wants to know the answer.

Still, there is some good news.

So far, none of those two hundred people has caught plague.

Doctors say plague comes fast; you can tell within a day or two.

So many doctors think this may not grow bigger.

But whether it really was plague, Russia still hasn't given everyone a clear answer.

Think about it: if your colleague got sick and you were shut inside the building, what would you most want to know?