US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the United States is closely monitoring the death of Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old laboratory worker at an anti-plague research institute in the Siberian city of Irkutsk.
“We’re watching and monitoring it closely,” Rubio stated before departing for Europe. “I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an eye on it.”
Shipilova became ill while at work and died two days later on October 2 at a regional hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov. According to Rubio, citing Russian official statements, it appeared a laboratory worker had become infected and there was concern the disease may have spread internally.
The exact cause of her illness remains unclear. Unconfirmed reports in Russian media have suggested Shipilova may have been infected following a mishap at the laboratory, though officials have not publicly confirmed this account.
Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said Shipilova died from “pneumonia of unknown aetiology” and stated that tests found no micro-organisms linked to her professional work. However, senior Russian officials have sent conflicting messages. Alexey Tsydenov, head of the neighboring Buryatia region, initially wrote that Shipilova had died of plague before editing his post to say she had “possibly” died of the disease.
Despite the lack of confirmed diagnosis, precautionary quarantine measures have been introduced across the region. According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Irkutsk Anti-plague Research Institute staff have been kept inside the facility since October 2, with more than 60 people isolated. Several hospitals in Irkutsk have also been placed under quarantine, with relatives prohibited from visiting.
Anna Popova, head of Rospotrebnadzor and Russia’s chief sanitary doctor, traveled to Irkutsk on Friday to attend an emergency meeting regarding what officials called a suspected case of a “particularly dangerous infection.”
Plagued remains endemic in parts of Siberia and the Russian far east, where the bacterium persists naturally among wild rodents. However, human cases in Russia are rare. Before this suspected case, Russia’s last recorded human infection was in 2016, when a 10-year-old boy in the Altai Republic contracted plague.
Prof Ian Jones, a virology professor at the University of Reading, said: “This case here seems like a rare lab accident and is unlikely to go much further. Although it is true that pneumonic plague is directly transmissible, the contacts of the primary case are known and can be treated if they show any sign of infection.”
Key facts
- Darya Shipilova, 28, died on October 2 after becoming ill at an anti-plague research institute in Irkutsk, Siberia
- Unconfirmed Russian media reports suggest she may have been infected after a laboratory mishap, though officials have not confirmed this
- Russia’s health watchdog said she died of pneumonia of unknown cause and found no micro-organisms linked to her professional work
- Over 60 staff members at the institute have been isolated since October 2, and several hospitals in Irkutsk placed under quarantine
- Russia’s last recorded human plague case was in 2016