Dozens quarantined in Russia after death at plague lab
Russian authorities have placed a hospital in quarantine and are monitoring close contacts of a researcher at a plague research institute who died of an undisclosed illness.
The lab technician from the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia – named as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova by local media – died last Friday at a hospital in Shelekhov.
This undated photo released in 2019 by the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East, shows the institute workers in a lab. The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East via AP
She had been diagnosed with a pneumonia of “unknown” origin, according to Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian agency responsible for infectious disease.
Local media outlets say she fell ill after being exposed to a broken test tube containing the pneumonic plague pathogen while working at the research centre.
But officials played down the link between the death of the researcher and her work.
“No microorganisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient,” Rospotrebnadzor said, adding that the “epidemiological situation” in the region was stable.
Two people who were in contact with the dead researcher tested positive for a virus that causes a common cold and two others for COVID-19, the agency said, adding that others who were tested were all negative.
An illustration of the Yersinia pestis bacterium that causes pneumonic plague. sitecore\pstock
The local governor Igor Kobzev says everyone who came into contact with the woman is under medical supervision.
He did not identify the infection and called it a suspected case of “a particularly dangerous infection”.
The Irkutsk Aluminum Plant in Shelekhov required staff to wear masks as a precaution. On Telegram, plant director Artyom Fominykh urged workers to be calm, adding “better be safe than sorry”.
US President Donald Trump said on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) his administration was monitoring the situation.
“We’re looking at it very strongly. We just heard about it,” Trump said.
“We’ll help,” Trump added. “Anybody that has that kind of a problem, we’re always willing to help.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he did not think there was cause for alarm, but the American government was watching the case closely, aware that “it could spread quickly” despite the quarantine and other public health protocols.
Patients with pneumonic plague develop fever, headache, weakness and “a rapidly developing pneumonia with shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, and sometimes bloody or watery mucous,” according to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.
- With Associated Press, CNN
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