United States officials are monitoring reports of a suspected pneumonic plague case in Russia after a laboratory worker died at an anti-plague research institute in Siberia.
The woman, identified by international health officials as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. She died in hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov last week after developing severe pneumonia.
Russian authorities have not confirmed that she had plague. The country’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said she had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and that testing had found no dangerous pathogens linked to her work.
Authorities placed the hospital under quarantine and traced people who had been in contact with the worker. Russian officials said those contacts had been medically monitored, with tests finding common respiratory infections, including Covid-19, but no confirmed case of plague.
The circumstances have nevertheless prompted concern because the institute handles dangerous pathogens, including the bacterium that causes plague. Unconfirmed reports have claimed that Shipilova may have been exposed during a laboratory incident, although Russian officials have denied that an accident involving pathogenic material took place.
US officials are seeking further information. Secretary of State Marco Rubio called on Moscow to be more transparent, saying it was unclear whether the incident was limited or could prove more serious.
The World Health Organisation said it was in contact with Russian authorities and assessed the risk outside Russia as very low. Its spokesman Christian Lindmeier said there was no indication that the incident resembled the coronavirus pandemic, while Russian authorities continued to investigate whether pneumonic plague had caused the death.
