Early this week, my colleague Mary Chastain reported that a laboratory employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia reportedly died after allegedly breaking a tube containing live plague bacteria. At the same time, nearly 200 contacts were hospitalized or monitored and a local hospital was quarantined.
Initial reports suggested that the 27-year-old employee, Daria Sh., may have contracted pneumonic plague (the airborne version of the bubonic plague of medieval fame), which can spread person-to-person through respiratory droplets and progress rapidly without prompt antibiotic treatment. The Russian reaction clearly reflected a rapid response to a significant biosafety incident.
However, in the past 24 hours, Russia’s government has sought to allay concerns and has walked back parts of the story.
The head of Russia’s eastern Republic of Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, initially said Shipilova died of the plague in a post on the state-backed messaging app MAX. He later edited the post to add the word “possibly,” according to an independent regional Russian media outlet that operates in exile, Lyudi Baikala (People of Baikal).
He was not the only Russian official to walk back their words on the story.
Local officials initially warned people not to visit the town of Shelekhov, where the scientist was hospitalized and later died, citing “unofficial information” about a human plague case.
The post was deleted less than two hours later, according to both Lyudi Baikala and Astra, another independent news website.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member