Russian Plague Laboratory Researcher Dies of Undiagnosed Infection, Triggering Isolation and Quarantine Measures

Dozens of people were reported to be in isolation after a Russian laboratory worker at an institute dedicated to studying the plague and other infectious diseases died of an undisclosed illness. The researcher, a 28-year-old female laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, in the town of Shelekhov, died after being diagnosed with a pneumonia of “unknown” origin, according to Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian agency that handles infectious disease.

The agency played down the link between the researcher’s death and her work. “No micro-organisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient,” it asserted, adding that the “epidemiological situation” in the region was stable. Nevertheless, the agency’s head, Anna Yuryevna Popova, traveled to Irkutsk on Friday, according to the local governor, Igor Kobzev, for what he described as an extraordinary meeting of the regional anti-epidemic commission.

Regional authorities are implementing a comprehensive set of anti-epidemic measures, according to Maxim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhovsky district in eastern Russia, near the Mongolian border. The inpatient facility at the hospital where the worker was treated has been placed under quarantine, and several departments have stopped discharging or admitting patients, Modin said. Other hospitals in the region have also been closed, according to local media reports.

Unofficial reports have said that nearly 200 people are under observation. The Kremlin urged the public to rely only on official statements from Rospotrebnadzor rather than rumors and speculation, a sentiment echoed by officials monitoring the situation globally, including the US State Department and the World Health Organization.