A Moscow metro depot employee disinfects a metro train in Moscow, Russia, Monday, March 16, 2020.Pavel Golovkin/AP
Reports out of the Irkutsk region of Russia reveal a potential public health crisis developing in the area, after a lab accident released a “particularly dangerous infection” to a researcher, who later passed away.
Twenty-eight-year-old Darya Shipilovia, a lab technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died two days after she was hospitalized, following exposure to a “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” according to Rospotrebnadzor, a federal agency that oversees health and safety. The pathogen in question has been said to be the deadly but treatable pneumonic plague.
The Russian government has not released an official announcement of the patient’s death, according to the independent news organization Meduza:
Governor Igor Kobzev said the regional government had convened a special meeting of the regional commission on sanitation and epidemic prevention. The meeting was called in response to information “about a suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection in a resident of the region.”
He did not specify the infection. Anna Popova, Russia’s chief sanitary officer, traveled to attend the meeting. According to Kobzev, Russia’s public health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, is taking “a full range of epidemic-control measures.” People who had been in contact with the patient were “placed under medical observation.” They have no signs of illness.
According to several outlets, hospitals are under quarantine, with the number of shutdowns ranging from three to five. Reports from independent news sources such as The Moscow Times say that nearly 200 workers have been placed under observation.
Dominic Hauschild, the defense correspondent of Britain’s The Sunday Times noted that establishing any of the facts about the situation has proved to be difficult because of the Russian government’s “secrecy.” But, he added, “There are fears this could be another Wuhan situation.”
This is a developing story.
Correction (Oct. 4): Yersinia pestis is a bacterium, treatable with antibiotics (if available) not a virus as previously stated.
