A laboratory technician at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia has died of what regional officials are calling a suspected case of pneumonic plague, triggering the quarantine of a local hospital, the isolation of nearly 200 people, and urgent calls from Washington for transparency from Moscow.
The deceased has been identified by local media as Darya Shipilova, 28, an employee of the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, located in the town of Shelekhov. According to the Daily Express, Shipilova told medical staff before her death that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while collecting samples for testing. She was hospitalized Tuesday with symptoms of severe pneumonia, placed on a ventilator, and died Thursday, the Daily Express reported. Russia's Rospotrebnadzor — the federal consumer and infectious disease watchdog — officially characterized her illness as 'pneumonia of unknown aetiology,' as reported by Al Jazeera citing TASS. The Shelekhov district hospital was placed under quarantine, and public events in Irkutsk have been cancelled, according to the Daily Express.
The governor of the neighboring Buryatia region, Alexei Tsydenov, confirmed in a Telegram post on Saturday that the woman had died 'maybe of the plague,' while simultaneously insisting there were 'no plague outbreaks in the republic, including in areas bordering Mongolia,' as reported by both Al Jazeera and the Daily Express. Irkutsk regional governor Igor Kobzev confirmed that nearly 200 people had been placed under medical observation, stating that as of Friday all contacts showed no signs of illness and that laboratory test results were negative, per CNN and the Daily Express. Despite Rospotrebnadzor's assertion that 'no micro-organisms associated with the employee's professional duties were detected in samples,' the agency's director, Anna Popova, traveled personally to Irkutsk on Friday for what Kobzev described as an extraordinary meeting of the regional anti-epidemic commission in connection with 'a suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection,' CNN reported.
Washington is not treating Moscow's assurances as sufficient. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio stated Tuesday that it was 'incumbent upon Russia to share more information with the world,' adding, 'We're watching it very closely, hour by hour,' according to CNN. The U.S. State Department separately told Al Jazeera that Washington was 'monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners' and urged Russian authorities to 'share accurate information quickly and openly.' Pneumonic plague — caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, typically carried by small mammals and their fleas — is among the most lethal infectious diseases known to medicine. The World Health Organization classifies it as highly infectious and fatal if not treated early, Al Jazeera noted. Outlets disagree on the precise death toll characterization: CNN and Al Jazeera describe the cause of death as unconfirmed or suspected plague, while the Daily Express reports that Buryatia's governor confirmed she died from 'an unspecified form of plague.'
Russia's official position remains that no dangerous pathogen linked to the institute's work has been identified. That position has not stopped the head of its own infectious disease authority from flying to Siberia for an emergency meeting — or U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio from saying Washington is watching the situation 'hour by hour.'