Russian researcher feared to have died of plague after lab accident

San Francisco: A researcher in Siberia has reportedly died of a disease suspected to be a form of plague released by a laboratory accident.

Russian authorities are responding to the incident at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East in Shelekhov, a city just west of Irkutsk near the border with Mongolia, according to state media.

Although it remains unclear what was released, a 28-year-old woman who worked in a laboratory at the institute died after being diagnosed with a pneumonia of unknown origin, according to Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s infectious disease agency.

“The sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is stable,” the agency said in a statement to CNN.

It said exceptional measures had been taken “in connection with the case of an employee of the Irkutsk Antiplague Institute”.

The institute studies “especially dangerous infectious diseases”, relating to surveillance, treatment and biological safety, according to its website.

Citing information from Rospotrebnadzor, Alexei Tsydenov, the head of the neighbouring republic of Buryatia, said the woman “may have died of plague”, but that there were “no plague outbreaks in the republic, including in the areas bordering Mongolia”.

Tsydenov did not specify the type of plague, but Russian media have reported that the disease was pneumonic plague, the only form that can be spread from person to person.

The woman, identified by Russian media as Daria Sh., reportedly told medical staff she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while collecting samples.

She was taken to hospital in Shelekhov last Tuesday with symptoms of severe pneumonia and placed on a ventilator before dying two days later, according to the Moscow Times.

Reports in Russian media state that about 200 people at the hospital where the worker was taken were placed under observation, and a quarantine was imposed at a maternity hospital.

Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, said an extraordinary meeting of the regional anti-epidemic commission had been called with Russia’s chief state doctor, “prompted by reports of a suspected case of a highly dangerous infectious disease in a regional resident”.

Kobzev urged calm, writing on Telegram that none of the contacts of the dead woman were showing any signs of illness and all testing had come back negative.

Gennady Onishchenko, a former head of Rospotrebnadzor, said on Friday that the infection was “most likely not the plague, but even if confirmed, there will be no spread of this disease”.

CNN reported that an aluminium plant near the laboratory had ordered workers to wear masks as a precaution, but noted there were “many rumours and conflicting reports circulating”, said Artem Fominikh, the plant’s director.

All public events in Irkutsk have been cancelled, and Russian media have reported that law enforcement has opened a criminal investigation into possible safety violations surrounding the woman’s death.

Pneumonic plague, one of three types of the disease caused by theYersinia pestis bacterium, is the most serious form of plague. It develops when a person inhales infectious droplets or when bacteria from untreated septicaemic or bubonic plague, which caused the Black Death, spread to the lungs of an infected person.

A Trump administration official told news website Axios that the White House was monitoring reports of the disease and quarantines.

The Telegraph, London

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