Russia insists there is "no plague case" following lab worker death

Several days after the passing of 28-year-old lab technician Darya Shipilova in Siberia, Russian health authorities are insisting there is no evidence that pneumonic plague played a part in the woman’s death and that no pathogens have been detected.

Alexey Tsydenov, a governor in Siberia, caused a stir last week when he announced on social media that a woman had died “from the plague” but later edited his post to say “possibly”. Russia’s consumer protection and public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, later stated that Shipilova — who died two days after falling ill with what initially presented as a typical acute respiratory viral infection — was “diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.

As noted by World Health Organization (WHO) spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, Shipilova worked at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East — an institute that studies “dangerous pathogens, including plague, in a part of Siberia where plague occurs naturally in wild animals”. Plague is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas; pneumonic plague occurs when the bacteria infect the lungs, and can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours of disease onset if left untreated.

Explaining the timeline of events, Lindmeier said that on 2 October “the internal monitoring system picked up the media reports of a suspected death from pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk oblast and started monitoring the situation”. The next day, the WHO contacted the Russian health authorities to get more information.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Russian authorities had since indicated that no case of plague has recently been reported in the Irkutsk region, and that they had placed about 200 of Shipilova’s contacts in quarantine. According to Lindmeier, “none to date have shown symptoms of illness” and no pathogens of dangerous infectious diseases have been detected among any of the contacts.

Maria Van Kerkhove, who heads the WHO’s Department of Epidemic and Pandemic Threat Management, said the health agency has now reached out to Russia for details on lab results, tests and further analysis. She said the request included further information regarding media reports of another suspicious pneumonia death in the region.

The WHO has offered its support to Russia and expects further answers from Moscow in the coming days.

Image credit: iStock.com/Dr_Microbe