On October 1, 2026, the inpatient unit at the district hospital in Shelekhov, in Russia’s Irkutsk region, closed because of a suspected “especially dangerous infection.” Media outlets later reported that 28-year-old Darya Shipilova had died there of pneumonic plague. According to one account, she was a laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute and accidentally broke a test tube containing the bacterium that causes the disease. There has been no official confirmation that she died of plague; the authorities say she had “pneumonia of unknown cause.”
Wasn’t plague eradicated?
No. It became much less common, and it hasn’t caused a pandemic since the mid-20th century. Many factors appear to have contributed to this decline. One was the development of antibiotics that can cure plague. People also began coming into contact with rats and their fleas less often.
Today, people mainly contract plague through contact with wild animals. In Russia in 2016, for example, a 10-year-old boy contracted the infection after helping butcher marmots. In the U.S., an average of seven people contract plague each year — mainly through bites from fleas that have fed on infected rodents. Plague is now most common in African countries, particularly the Democratic Republic of the Congo (where an outbreak of Ebola virus disease is also ongoing) and Madagascar (where more than 2,000 people fell ill in 2017).
Russia officially recognizes 11 areas where plague circulates naturally, but in 2025, the bacterium that causes it was detected in only three of them. Every year, tens of thousands of people living in these areas are vaccinated against plague. There is a caveat, though: very few countries use the vaccine, and a lack of research means its effectiveness is unknown.
Is plague dangerous?
Yes. There are several forms of plague, all caused by the same bacterium but with different symptoms. The most common, bubonic plague, causes severe swelling of the lymph nodes. Pneumonic plague causes flu-like symptoms and lung failure. Other forms of the infection are less common.
Even with prompt antibiotic treatment, bubonic plague is fatal in 14% of cases. The death rate for pneumonic plague is twice as high. Treatment is more likely to succeed if it begins within two days of the onset of symptoms and uses drugs appropriate for that form of plague.
Without treatment, 30% to 60% of people with bubonic plague die. For pneumonic plague, the death rate can reach 100%.
How easily does plague spread from person to person?
Plague can spread through respiratory droplets, but only in its pneumonic form, and transmission requires prolonged contact. Usually, those who become infected live with or care for someone who has the disease. Plague doesn’t spread the way measles does: with measles, someone can walk into a room after an infected person has left and catch the disease.
During the first 24 hours, a patient with pneumonic plague poses no risk to others — the risk arises only when coughing begins. The World Health Organization recommends that anyone who has been within two meters (about 6.5 feet) of someone with plague in the past 10 days take appropriate antibiotics. Although people around the world continue to contract pneumonic plague, there has been no new pandemic. That is precisely because the bacterium spreads so poorly between people and established protocols help identify everyone who has been in contact with a patient, isolate them, and provide care. If the woman in the Irkutsk region did have pneumonic plague, that certainly doesn’t mean another pandemic is imminent.
Again, transmission through respiratory droplets is uncommon, and many other ways plague can spread between people are even rarer. Today, people mainly contract plague through contact with wild animals — specifically, through flea bites. That is why people at risk in Russia are vaccinated. According to Russian vaccine instructions, however, protection fades quickly, so another dose is needed every year (or after just six months if the situation in the region worsens).
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The Explainer Desk
Which ones?
The Central Caucasus high-altitude focus (covers high- and mid-elevation areas around Mount Elbrus, between the Peredovoy and Skalisty ranges, from the headwaters of the Kuban River in the west to the Cherek-Bezengi Range in the east).
The Altai Mountains high-altitude focus (located in the southeastern Altai Mountains, covering the territory between the Saylyugem, Chikhachev, Kuray, and South Chuya ranges and the eastern end of the North Chuya Range. It also includes the southeastern steppe portion of the Ukok Plateau).
The Tuva mountain focus (located in the southern and southwestern parts of the Republic of Tuva: on the southern, eastern, and western slopes of the Mongun-Taiga massif; in the basins of the Mogen-Buren, Tolayty, Shara-Kharagay, Kargy, Tolaylyg, and Barlyk rivers and their tributaries; and on the southern slopes of the Tannu-Ola Range).