Three Russian hospitals and hundreds of people have been placed under quarantine following a fatal pneumonic plague outbreak, amid claims of a government cover-up.
Darya Shipilova, 28, is said to have been working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia when she was exposed to the pathogen.
She was admitted to hospital on September 29 and placed on a ventilator but died two days later.
Concerns about a potential spread of the disease – which has a near-100 per cent death rate if left untreated – led to 200 people she came into contact with being quarantined.
Three hospitals in the region have also been placed under secure measures.
Fatalities from pneumonic plague drop to around 17 per cent if carriers are identified within 24 hours and treated with antibiotics.
But there are reports that the drugs are running out in the region as terrified residents overload pharmacies and medical facilities with demands for supplies.
There have also been claims that the Russian authorities have put up a smokescreen to hide exactly what happened.
Lab worker Darya Shipilova, 28, died in Siberia of pneumonic plague after breaking a test tube
Health officials have been pictured in the Irkutsk region wearing hazmat suits amid the plague response, which includes a mask decree
Mikhal Favorov, a senior Russian epidemiologist, dismissed the broken test tube explanation, according to the Moscow Times.
He was reported to have said: ‘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, anonymously run political Telegram channel, likened the situation to the outbreak of Covid-19, which the Chinese blamed on a wet market rather than a mishap at the nearby Wuhan Institute of Virology.
Ms Shipilova told medical staff she had accidentally broken the test tube holding live bacteria, according to news outlet Lyudi Baikala.
She then became unwell while on a field expedition with colleagues in Buryatia, beside Russia’s eastern border with Mongolia.
She was transferred to Shelekhov Hospital with severe pneumonia before succumbing to the disease.
The hospital is among the medical facilities to be placed under quarantine. The others have taken in those who came into contact with Ms Shipilova.
Pneumonic plague causes a severe lung infection, with symptoms including fever, shortness of breath and coughing up blood which typically begin to show between three to seven days after contact.
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 handing 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.
