Russian Authorities Won’t Confirm Pneumonic Plague Outbreak in Central Siberia

On Monday, authorities in central Russia expanded quarantine measures and restrictions to public movement following a probable outbreak of the highly-lethal disease pneumonic plague and the death of a health worker from exposure, according to local news reports.In the town of Shelekhov, in Russia’s Irkutsk region near Lake Baikal, both patients and medical personnel in the district hospital’s inpatient department were placed under complete lockdown. The hospital suspended admissions and discharges, according to a video report by the regional news outlet Liudi Baikal.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.Reports by local media that Russian authorities had mobilized police, security services, and even military units to contain the outbreak were contradicted over the weekend by officials, who insisted the situation was under control and that there was no conclusive evidence that the disease, known in medieval times as the Black Death, had appeared in the Irkutsk region.According to Liudi Baikal and other regional news platforms, medical researcher Darya Shipilova, a laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died in late September after breaking a test tube containing the most dangerous strain of the plague disease, called the pneumonic plague, while at work. She became ill and was hospitalized at Shelekhov Hospital, near the city of Irkutsk, and died during the night on Friday, Oct. 2, according to the news report. Other Topics of Interest ‘We’re Staying’: European Embassies Defy Russia’s Warning to Leave Kyiv European missions are publicly reaffirming their presence in Kyiv after Moscow urged foreign diplomats to leave and warned of further strikes. Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and depending on means of infection, can develop different strains in victims. Bubonic plague is moderately contagious and usually transferred by flea and rodent bites. The disease affects a victim’s lymph nodes with usually high mortality if untreated. The normal treatment of all plague forms is common antibiotics.Pneumonic plague – the strain that killed Shipilova according to reports - is highly contagious and usually transferred by respiratory droplets from an animal or person infected with Yersinia pestis. The disease attacks a victim’s lungs with usually extremely high mortality. The less common and less contagious clinical plague form Septicemic plague infects a person via blood contamination and is also highly lethal if untreated.As Shipilova’s health deteriorated, authorities reportedly tracked down at least 90 people believed to have come into contact with her and transported them by ambulance to an Irkutsk quarantine facility. By Thursday, all were being held at a treatment center formerly used for COVID-19 patients. Local media reports claimed that Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) played a leading role in locating and detaining potential contacts.By Monday, around 200 people believed to have had potential contact with Shipilova were being held at the quarantine center, according to local media reports. Quarantine measures were also imposed on several Irkutsk medical facilities, including hospitals No. 1, No. 3, and No. 10, the Ivano-Matryoninskaya Children’s Hospital, a maternity hospital, and the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, where Shipilova reportedly contracted the infection, Liudi Baikal reported.However, Russia’s national health authority, Rospotrebnadzor, pushed back against the reports on Sunday. In its first public statement, issued about 60 hours after Shipilova’s death, the agency said she had died from pneumonia “of an undetermined origin” and denied that any pathogenic microorganisms had been accidentally released at the anti-plague institute. A follow-up statement carried by the state news agency TASS further stated that plague was not responsible for her death.Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev, in comments published by the local news platform Ir.City.Ru, said that the “epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and Shelekhov is stable” and that there was no evidence of even a single plague infection.Yet, in comments to RFE/RL, a state department spokesman said the disease outbreak was possibly plague: “We are aware of reports of a fatal case of suspected pneumonic plague in Irkutsk Oblast, Russia. We are monitoring the situation closely with the CDC and our other interagency partners,” adding that they “urge Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly.”Governor Igor Kobzev’s messaging was undermined by comments from local officials. On Friday, Maxim Modin, head of the town of Shelekhov, told local media that the hospital’s former COVID-19 ward had been repurposed as a quarantine center to isolate people who may have been exposed to the “especially dangerous infection” that had reportedly caused Shipilova’s death.On Saturday, Alexey Tsydenov, governor of the neighboring Republic of Buryatia, told reporters that a confirmed case of pneumonic plague in the Irkutsk region had resulted in the death of a female researcher. He said the infection stemmed from a laboratory accident rather than exposure in Buryatia. A sparsely populated region adjacent to Mongolia, with large swaths of wild territory, Buryatia is a known source of the plague bacterium that is present in some rodent populations, especially marmonts.On Monday, according to the independent Russian news agency Astra, residents of Shelekhov reported that masks and gloves had been distributed in kindergartens, while in neighboring Irkutsk, a citywide community cleanup was canceled.Motorists traveling along the R-258 highway between Shelekhov and Irkutsk reported that staff at fuel stations were wearing protective masks under orders from health authorities. However, according to Exilenova+ on Monday, mask-wearing was not mandatory. Stefan Korshak is the Kyiv Post Senior Defense Correspondent. He is from Houston Texas, is a Yalie and since the mid-1990s has worked as correspondent/photographer for newswire, newspapers, television and radio. He has reported from five wars but most enjoys doing articles on wildlife and nature. You can read his weekly blog on the Russo-Ukraine War on Facebook, Substack and Medium. His new book on the 2022 Siege of Mariupol is available on Amazon UK and Amazon US.