A Russian laboratory technician has died from pneumonic plague after reportedly breaking a test tube containing live bacteria.
Darya Shipilova, 28, was reportedly working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia when she was exposed to the infection.
She was taken to hospital on September 29 and placed on a ventilator, but died two days later.
Fears of a wider outbreak of the disease—which is almost always fatal without treatment—have led to about 200 people who came into contact with her being quarantined.
Three hospitals in the region have also been placed under heightened security measures.
The fatality rate for pneumonic plague can fall to around 17 per cent when cases are identified within 24 hours and treated with antibiotics.
However, reports suggest supplies of the drugs are running low as frightened residents overwhelm pharmacies and medical facilities with requests for treatment and medication.
There have also been allegations that Russian authorities are obscuring the true circumstances of the incident.
Lab technician Darya Shipilova, 28, died of pneumonic plague in Siberia after reportedly breaking a test tube
Health officials have been pictured wearing hazmat suits in Russia’s Irkutsk region during the plague response, which includes a mask requirement
Mikhail Favorov, a senior Russian epidemiologist, rejected the explanation that a broken test tube caused the infection, according to The Moscow Times.
He was quoted as saying: “It’s laughable. Someone working at the Anti-Plague Institute in Irkutsk wears a protective anti-plague suit.
“If you break a test tube, the likelihood of infection is actually very low. In short, it doesn’t matter to the general public—they’ll believe the ‘broken test tube’ story.”
He added: “It’s absolutely hair-raising. We will not be told what really happened.”
Nezygar, a popular anonymous political Telegram channel, compared the situation with the Covid-19 outbreak, when China blamed a wet market rather than an alleged mishap at the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology.
According to news outlet Lyudi Baikala, Shipilova told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria.
She later became ill while on a field expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, near Russia’s eastern border with Mongolia.
She was transferred to Shelekhov Hospital with severe pneumonia but later died from the disease.
The hospital is one of the medical facilities placed under quarantine. The other hospitals are treating people who had contact with Shipilova.
Pneumonic plague causes a severe infection of the lungs. Symptoms include fever, breathing difficulties and coughing up blood, and typically appear three to seven days after exposure.
There was no immediate statement from Russia’s health ministry but Alexei Tsydenov, governor of Russia’s Buryatia region, said in a social media post that a woman in the neighbouring Irkutsk region had ‘died of plague’.
The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute was founded in 1934
Russia’s chief state sanitary doctor Anna Popova rushed 2,600 miles from Moscow to Siberia to take personal charge of the outbreak, according to reports, while a mask decree has been implemented in Irkutsk.
Irkutsk governor Igor Kobzev said: ‘We held an extraordinary meeting of the regional sanitary and anti-epidemic commission with the participation of Russia’s Chief State Sanitary Doctor Anna Popova.
‘The reason was information that had emerged about a suspected case of a particularly dangerous infectious disease in a resident of the region.’
Mr Kobzev, who cancelled all public meetings across the region, earlier refused to name the suspected disease.
‘All identified contacts have been placed under medical observation,’ he said.
‘As of today, none of the contacts has any signs of illness and their laboratory test results are negative.’
Maxim Modin, mayor of the nearby town of Shelekhov, told residents ‘not to spread rumours or unreliable information – use only official sources’.
He added: ‘It is too early to draw final conclusions – we will wait for the specialists’ findings.’
Pneumonic plague is one of three types of plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis.
It is transferred as a result of breathing in airborne droplets from another person.
Septicaemic plague infects the blood and results from flea bites or handling infected animals. Symptoms include internal bleeding and tissue turning black due to necrosis.
The third is the bubonic plague – also known as the Black Death and notoriously responsible for the Great Plague of 1665 which killed about a fifth of London’s inhabitants.
It is also caused by flea bites and causes fever, chills and painful, swollen lymph nodes known as buboes.
