WHO seeks answers on Irkutsk lab worker’s death as Russia rejects plague reports

The World Health Organization said on 7 October that it still lacked information needed to assess the death of a laboratory worker in Russia’s Irkutsk region, after Russia told the agency that no recent plague case had been reported there. WHO is also seeking verification of reports that a second employee has pneumonia. Neither a plague diagnosis nor a second case has been established in the cited accounts.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Russia had reported placing about 200 contacts in quarantine. Separately, Russian public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said nearly 5,000 tests found no dangerous pathogens and described the situation as posing no epidemic risk, according to Euronews. The differing statements leave questions about the worker’s illness, the measures taken and the health of her contacts.

What WHO has asked Russia to explain

In his 7 October briefing, Tedros said the first media reports of suspected pneumonic plague in a worker at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute appeared on 2 October. The worker died after being hospitalized with severe pneumonia. WHO described the proposed plague diagnosis as an initial media report, not as a finding it had confirmed.

WHO said the Russian government held a meeting on 2 October because it suspected that a resident of Irkutsk oblast had contracted a dangerous infection. The agency asked Russia for information the following day under the International Health Regulations. According to Tedros, Russia replied on 6 October that no plague case had recently been reported in the region and that about 200 contacts had been quarantined.

The agency cannot yet conduct a full risk assessment because it does not have a complete account of the event, Tedros said. He called timely, complete information sharing under the International Health Regulations essential to resolve conflicting reports and assess possible public health risks. The questions are set out in WHO’s 7 October briefing.

What Russian authorities have said about the worker and contacts

Euronews reported that Rospotrebnadzor said the worker had been vaccinated and had immunity to the dangerous infections she worked with. The report said Russian authorities had described her cause of death as undetermined and said she died of pneumonia. Rospotrebnadzor also said more than 90% of her contacts had completed medical monitoring, according to Euronews.

The Associated Press reported a further account from Rospotrebnadzor: tests had found no evidence that the worker’s pneumonia of unknown origin was caused by pathogens she handled at the institute. AP said Russian authorities described the region’s sanitary and epidemiological situation as calm and reported two COVID-19 cases and two rhinovirus cases among contacts. Those are reported Russian findings; WHO has asked for more detail about the tests and contacts.

Euronews quoted Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying that the overwhelming majority of media reports about the situation were false and urging people to rely on Rospotrebnadzor. That response did not resolve WHO’s request to verify the report of a second employee with pneumonia. A reported pneumonia illness is not, by itself, confirmation of plague.

Who died, and what remains unresolved

AP said the local outlet Lyudi Baikala identified the worker as Darya Shipilova, 28, and reported that she was hospitalized on 29 September and died three days later. AP also reported that her mother had not received official documents stating a cause of death. WHO official Maria Van Kerkhove told AP that the agency did not know what caused the worker’s illness and had sent further questions after Russia’s response.

Two experts quoted by AP distinguished the response from the unanswered medical question. Virginia Commonwealth University professor Judy Twigg said Russian authorities’ measures appeared swift and serious but criticized official candor. Higher School of Economics professor Vasily Vlassov described the measures as sensible while saying uncertainty about the situation remained. Their assessments do not establish what caused Shipilova’s illness.

The United States has also asked Russia for more information, a State Department spokesperson told Euronews, which reported that Washington was communicating with other countries. Peskov said he had no information that the Kremlin had received a US complaint. Those statements describe the governments’ communications; they do not supply a diagnosis or verify another illness.

AP reported that plague occurs naturally among wild animals in Siberia and that pneumonic plague can spread through inhalation and is treatable with antibiotics. That background explains why a suspected case drew attention, but it is no evidence that Shipilova had plague. The immediate unanswered questions remain the cause of her illness, the basis for quarantining contacts and whether the reported second employee is ill.