In Russia — an aggressor state — nearly 200 people have been placed under precautionary medical observation following the death of a 28-year-old employee of an anti-plague institute in Irkutsk. According to NBC News, local media reported that the researcher may have come into contact with the pathogen that causes pneumonic plague.
Russia’s consumer rights protection service said that the woman died of pneumonia of unknown origin. Russian authorities have not confirmed the exact cause of her death. The agency also described the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region and the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov as stable.
Nearly 200 people who had contact with the employee are under medical observation as a precautionary measure. Maksim Modin, the mayor of the Shelekhov municipal district, said that the inpatient facility where the researcher was treated had been closed for quarantine.
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Pneumonic plague is caused by the same bacterium, Yersinia pestis, as the bubonic form of the disease. It can be transmitted from person to person through airborne droplets, including when coughing or sneezing. The World Health Organization notes that this form of plague is particularly contagious and can cause severe epidemics.
Former White House COVID-19 response coordinator Ashish Jha told NBC News that more information and transparency from Moscow are needed to assess the situation. According to him, if this is an isolated case and there are no further deaths, the situation will likely end there, while the risk of a large-scale outbreak or global pandemic is extremely low.
According to the WHO, from 2019 to 2025, ten countries reported more than 3,800 suspected human plague cases. Confirmed cases were recorded in six countries, mainly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Madagascar; 423 deaths were registered.
Source: UA
