Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old staff member at a plague research institute in the Irkutsk region of Siberia, has died after falling ill. Shipilova passed away on the night of October 2 at a regional hospital in the nearby town of Shelekhov.
Following her death, authorities have placed several hospitals under quarantine and put nearly 200 people under medical observation, with some reports specifying 189 contacts. The head of Russia's health watchdog has traveled to the Irkutsk region to oversee the response.
While the death has sparked public health fears and rumors of a plague outbreak on social media, Russian authorities and the governor of Irkutsk maintain that the cause of death was pneumonia of unknown origin. Rospotrebnadzor insists the situation is stable and under control, and the Kremlin stated that top professionals in the field are working on the case.
The situation is being closely monitored by international observers in Washington and Brussels following reports that the lab worker may have been exposed to pneumonic plague.