Dozens of people have been quarantined in Russia’s Siberia after a laboratory worker at a plague research institute fell ill and died in undisclosed circumstances. Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported the woman may have contracted pneumonic plague from a broken test tube and died. Plague is a severe, life-threatening infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
Between 1346 and 1353, the bubonic plague – one of three forms of the disease – was known as the Black Death. It caused one of the most fatal pandemics in the world across Eurasia and North Africa. Some 30-60 percent of the population of Europe is believed to have died in that outbreak.
Pneumonic plague is less common than bubonic plague. It is a severe form of the infection that can spread from person to person. What happened in the Russian lab and should we be worried?
On Monday, Russian media reported that a 28-year-old woman named Darya Shipilova, who had been working at the Irkutsk Anti-plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died from suspected pneumonic plague last week. According to some Russian media reports, Shipilova became ill while at work on September 30 and died two days later at a hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov. A number of media reports suggest there may have been an accident at the lab, but this has not been officially confirmed.
About 200 people who came into contact with the dead woman have since been quarantined, and parts of the hospital where she died have also been cordoned off. An aluminium plant nearby has instructed its workers to wear masks. Anna Popova, head of Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Irkutsk to meet with Governor Igor Kobzev and other officials four days ago.
In a statement quoted by the TASS news agency, Rospotrebnadzor said officials in Irkutsk region had, however, detected two cases of COVID and two cases of rhinoviruses among people who had been in contact with the researcher. No other cases of infectious diseases were noted. Later on Monday, Russian authorities said they found no evidence that the woman’s illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with and said the situation was under control.
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