Russian researcher who studied plague died of mysterious illness: What to know
A 28-year-old lab technician in Russia’s far east working on research at the country’s Anti-Plague Institute died of “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” on Thursday, triggering a public health lockdown involving the quarantining of 200 other people. Daria Shipilova, 28, was hospitalized and put on a ventilator on Tuesday, then died two days later. The research […]
A 28-year-old lab technician in Russia’s far east working on research at the country’s Anti-Plague Institute died of “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” on Thursday, triggering a public health lockdown involving the quarantining of 200 other people.
Daria Shipilova, 28, was hospitalized and put on a ventilator on Tuesday, then died two days later. The research facility is located within Irkutsk Oblast, in Siberia. The diagnosis of “pneumonia of unknown etiology” was given by Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s public health and consumer protection agency, in the conclusion of its investigation by a special expert commission. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov urged the public to keep calm and only listen to professionals from the group regarding the situation, rather than “rumors and speculation.”
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“Professionals from Rospotrebnadzor are handling the situation with the infection in the Irkutsk region; this falls within their area of expertise,” he said on Monday.
After Shipilova’s death at Shelekhov district hospital, a town near the capital of Irkutsk, the hospital was put under quarantine. Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova flew to Irkutsk to coordinate the response, which included a meeting with Irkutsk Oblast Gov. Igor Kobzev. Kobzev urged calm in a Telegram post on Friday after the meeting, saying the matter was under control.
“All identified contact persons have been placed under medical observation. As of today, the contacts show no signs of illness, and their laboratory test results are negative,” he said.
On Sunday, Rospotrebnadzor announced the results of its investigation, finding no microorganisms related to Shipilova’s work in her biological samples. All her close contacts, nearly 200 people, were put under quarantine and strict observation, but daily testing found only two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus.
Kobzev put out another statement on Monday, effectively declaring the crisis over.
“The sanitary and epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and the Shelekhov district is currently stable,” he said. “The situation remains under our control and under the control of the experts.”
Those under quarantine could be discharged next week, Kobzev said.
An initial, widely repeated report claimed that Shipilova said she fell ill after accidentally breaking a vial of Yersinia pestis, but Rospotrebnadzor gave an implicit denial, saying that no accident at the facility had occurred.
The original fear was that Shipilov could have been the victim of a pneumonic form of plague, an especially contagious version of the disease.
Some official messaging was confused in the first few days. Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighboring republic of Buryatia, originally said the woman died of plague, but later edited his post to say “may have.”
Countries bordering Russia have increased border controls over the outbreak, including Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan.
The U.S. has taken a publicly cautious approach. A Trump administration official toldAxios on Sunday that it “is aware, monitoring the outbreak, and assessing options.”
No reports or evidence suggest that the lab Shipilova was working at was involved in bioweapons research, as most instances of laboratory biosecurity-related incidents have revolved around Russia previously.
One of the most infamous disease research-related deaths occurred in the secret Siberian city of Koltsovo, hundreds of miles west of Shelekhov, in 1988. Soviet researcher Nikolai Ustinov accidentally pricked himself with a syringe containing Marburg virus — a disease which bleeds the victim to death and to which there is no cure — while testing it on guinea pigs. He quarantined himself and documented his painful demise over around two weeks. After his death, his colleagues harvested the virus from his body and turned it into a bioweapon, named “Variant U” in his honor.
