A 28-year-old lab worker is dead and nearly 200 people are quarantined in Siberia after she reportedly broke a test tube containing plague bacteria at the very institute built to fight it. On Sunday, the White House said it is monitoring the situation.
Daria Shipilova worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, near the city of Irkutsk. According to local reports, she accidentally shattered a test tube holding the plague pathogen on September 25 while collecting samples. She fell ill two days later, was hospitalized on September 29 with severe pneumonia, placed on a ventilator, and died on October 1.
The response has been massive. An entire hospital was put under quarantine. Three of Irkutsk’s six hospitals are under strict quarantine rules, along with a children’s hospital and a maternity ward. University classes were cancelled. Workers at a giant aluminium smelter were ordered to wear masks. Roughly 200 people who had contact with Shipilova are now isolated or under medical observation.
Here is where it gets strange. Russia’s health watchdog now says Shipilova died of “pneumonia of unknown origin” and denies any lab accident ever happened. But the regional governor cancelled all public events, the country’s top sanitary doctor flew 2,600 miles from Moscow to take charge of the response, and locals report hazmat teams moving through the streets. The head of neighboring Buryatia first said she “possibly” died of plague, then quietly edited his statement hours later.
Online searches for the Russian word for plague are up 5,000 percent compared to last year. A prominent Russian Telegram channel compared the situation to Wuhan. The White House told Axios it is “aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options.”
So far, none of Shipilova’s contacts have tested positive. But nobody in charge can say what actually killed her, and that is exactly why people are scared.
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