Siberian governor announces ‘all-clear’ following death of Russian plague research institute employee

Authorities in Russia’s Irkutsk region have completed a “series of preventive measures” after the death of Darya Shipilova, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, Governor Igor Kobzev said. She had community-acquired pneumonia, he said.

Kobzev said Shipilova had been vaccinated and “had immunity to the dangerous infections involved in her work.” He said authorities had found no “accidents while handling pathogenic microorganisms” at the institute. Specialists also finished monitoring everyone who had been in contact with Shipilova and found no health problems. Kobzev said:

Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s public health watchdog, said there were no risks to public health in the Irkutsk region and that the public health situation there was “stable.”

Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old employee of an anti-plague research institute, died overnight on October 2 in Shelekhov, a satellite city of Irkutsk. Authorities later isolated about 200 people who had been in contact with her. The news outlet Lyudi Baikala reported that several hospitals in Irkutsk had been closed and placed under quarantine. Reports began circulating in the media and on social media that Shipilova had died of pneumonic plague after contracting it at her research institute. Rospotrebnadzor said in an official statement that she had died of “pneumonia of unknown cause.”