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Russian authorities have insisted a lab researcher who died in Siberia last week did not have the plague while quarantining nearly 200 of her contacts, confining more than 60 colleagues inside their institute and restricting access to multiple hospitals, all without explanation.
Darya Shipilova, 28, a researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, was admitted to Shelekhov District Hospital in late September and died last Friday night.
Russia’s national health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said biological samples from her body found no microorganisms linked to her professional work and that she died from “pneumonia of unknown aetiology.”
The agency said its special commissions had found no accidents involving pathogenic microorganisms at the institute. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters to rely solely on Rospotrebnadzor’s statements.
Between 189 and 197 of Shipilova’s contacts were placed under observation and quarantine, according to figures cited by independent and regional media.
Initial tests among those contacts returned negative. More than 60 staff members of the anti-plague institute were effectively confined inside the facility for several days.
Quarantine restrictions were also imposed on hospitals in Irkutsk, including a maternity ward, according to reporting by multiple regional and international outlets.
Patients at one facility said doctors cited plague as the reason. Relatives of a woman in labour were refused entry to the ward despite having paid for partner-assisted birth.
The head of neighbouring Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, initially said after Shipilova’s death that she had died of plague, then amended this to “possibly plague”.
Irkutsk regional authorities posted a message on Friday asking residents not to travel to the satellite town of Shelekhov because of plague, then deleted it.
Governor Igor Kobzev described the cause of death as “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” on Monday.
What are international authorities saying?
The World Health Organization said it assessed the public health risk from the incident as low to moderate for Irkutsk region, low for Russia as a whole and very low for the WHO European region.
It said Russian authorities had identified Shipilova’s contacts and were monitoring them, and that they had detected no dangerous infectious disease agents among those contacts.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control told Euronews it was “closely following the situation” and was in contact with the WHO.
“We are aware of a case of pneumonia of unknown origin in eastern Russia that is suspected to be plague. This suspicion has not yet been confirmed,” an ECDC representative said.
US authorities are also monitoring developments, while Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan have strengthened sanitary controls at their borders with Russia.
Uzbekistan has also strengthened its public-health preparedness after reports of a suspected case of a particularly dangerous infectious disease in Russia’s Irkutsk region, while stressing that the diagnosis has not yet been confirmed.
Online theories swirl
Two unofficial theories have circulated in Russian media. The first, reported by Telegram channels SHOT and Baza, holds that Shipilova accidentally broke a test tube containing the plague pathogen in the laboratory.
Several specialists consider this unlikely, noting that work with high-risk pathogens is conducted inside sealed safety cabinets with protective suits and strict decontamination protocols.
The second theory is that the infection was acquired during field research in a region with natural plague reservoirs. The head of Buryatia publicly denied that Shipilova had visited the region.
The official diagnosis has not been confirmed or ruled out by published PCR test results.
Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. Its most common form, bubonic plague, affects the lymphatic system. Pneumonic plague, which can spread between people via airborne droplets, is considered the most dangerous.
Russia’s most recent confirmed human cases were recorded in the Altai region in 2014, 2015 and 2016, all involving people who handled marmots.
Human plague cases in Russia remain rare despite natural reservoirs existing in several regions.