Russia’s health regulator refuted claims on Thursday that a second individual had fallen ill following the death of a worker at a plague research laboratory in Siberia. The regulator dismissed what it termed as “false information circulating on social media about a second case of illness.”
According to a statement released by Russian news agencies, the regulator confirmed that all contacts of the deceased woman had been thoroughly examined. It stated, “No health issues related to an infectious disease were found, and nearly 5,000 laboratory tests showed no presence of dangerous pathogenic microorganisms.”
The 28-year-old lab worker, Daria Shipilova, passed away last Friday from pneumonia of unknown origin at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia. Russian authorities swiftly implemented precautionary anti-epidemic measures following Shipilova’s death. Officials mentioned that she had been vaccinated, making her immune to the infections she worked with.
The World Health Organization initially assessed the risk to the public from the Russian case as low but expressed the need for more information from Russian authorities to make a comprehensive risk evaluation. The WHO director-general offered assistance to Russia and requested verification of reports of a second employee with pneumonia of unexplained cause.
Health Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are closely monitoring the situation, with both countries seeing minimal risks at present. The CDC director stated that the risk of a confirmed pneumonic plague case in Siberia affecting the U.S. is very low, but the agency is prepared to monitor and screen travelers.
Two-hundred individuals in Siberia are under medical observation following the incident at the research facility. The CDC has established a port health station at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York for surveillance and screening of travelers from the affected region entering the U.S. Direct flights between Russia and the U.S. have been halted since the beginning of the conflict in Ukraine in 2022.