Roughly 200 people are under medical observation, several hospitals are under quarantine, and dozens are in isolation in Russia following the unexplained death of an infectious disease researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia, in the town of Shelekhov, according to early reports of the situation on Sunday and Monday.
Researcher Darya Shipilova reportedly died last week from pneumonia of “unknown” cause, according to Rospotrebnadzor, a Russian public health agency.
Unconfirmed information regarding her death has swirled. Some reports have claimed she accidentally broke a test tube containing the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis, on September 25. She subsequently fell ill, was admitted to a hospital September 29 with severe pneumonia and died overnight between October 1 and Oct. 2. The head of the Russian region that neighbors Irkutsk, Alexey Tsydenov, initially reported that she had died of plague but later altered his statement to say she “possibly” died of the disease.
Y. pestis can cause several forms of plague: bubonic, septicemic, and pneumonic—the latter of which can be aggressive and quickly fatal. However, the pathogen is generally easily treated by antibiotics. In the US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that anyone exposed to the pathogen should undergo an immediate 7-day post-exposure antibiotic prophylaxis treatment. Additionally, though pneumonic plague is spread via respiratory particles from coughing, it is not considered highly infectious; it requires direct, close contact for the bacteria to be transmitted.
Former Rospotrebnadzor head Gennady Onishchenko said Friday that Shipilova’s infection was “most likely not the plague” but that there “will be no spread of this disease,” CNN reported.
Rospotrebnadzor has downplayed the incident, saying in a statement that the “epidemiological situation” in the region is stable. “No micro-organisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient,” it said.
However, the current head of the agency, Anna Popova, made an unusual trip to Irkutsk on Friday, which Igor Kobzev, the local governor, described as being due to a “suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection affecting a resident of the region.”
A spokesperson for the US State Department told CNN, “We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners. Many details have not been confirmed. We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly.”
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said on Monday that it, too, is monitoring the situation “very closely.”
Kyrgyzstan, around 1,500 miles from Irkutsk, said Monday it was introducing quarantine controls at state border crossing points.
