There have been conflicting reports about how the 28-year-old laboratory worker, named by local media as “Darya Shipilova,” had fallen ill and some Russian media reports are no longer available online. A local news source claimed that the lab worker was exposed to plague via a broken test tube, but local authorities have said there was no evidence to support this.
Rospotrebnadzor, the government body responsible for public health, similarly told state media the institute had not found signs of any accidents involving the handling of pathogens in the lab.
Local media also reported that the inpatient department at the Shelekhov hospital where the lab worker died has been closed due to a suspected “particularly dangerous infection," with local residents informed they will be unable to visit family at the facility. This has not been confirmed by public officials.
TIME has reached out to the Russian Health Ministry, the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia, and Rospotrebnadzor for further comment.
But Dr. Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, stressed in a statement that it is “important to remember that pneumonic plague is a very different” disease.
However, unlike many viral respiratory diseases, he said, “plague is caused by bacteria and is generally treatable with antibiotics, if identified quickly.”
Meanwhile, the U.S. is closely monitoring the evolving situation.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday said “it seems there was a worker at the lab that was infected” and “there’s concern that could have spread, at least internally, so you’ve seen them do quarantines.”
He emphasized that while he doesn’t think the situation, at this point in time, is cause for alarm, he does consider it to be “cause for focus."
The bacterium Yersinia pestis has a long, dark history with the human race; it was this pathogen, spread by flea bites, that killed more than 25 million Europeans during the Black Death of the 14th century. There are three different forms, all caused by the same bacterium but affecting different tissues: bubonic, which can cause dark swellings in the groin and armpits; septicemic plague, in which the pathogen enters the bloodstream; and pneumonic plague, which attacks the lungs. The pathogen can be spread by the bites of infected fleas, by contact with the bodily fluids of infected people, or by breathing in airborne particles that contain it.
What is pneumonic plague?
The symptoms include fever, weakness, rapidly progressing pneumonia, and cough. Pneumonic plague has a very short incubation period—as short as one day. If untreated, this form is almost always fatal. Even with treatment, about 30% of infected people die.
Where is plague endemic?
Natural reservoirs of the bacterium exist on all inhabited continents except Oceania, according to the World Health Organization. In the U.S., cases are concentrated in the West; visitors to Yosemite National Park, for instance, are warned against feeding ground squirrels and chipmunks, creatures that can carry fleas containing Yersinia pestis. Every year, a handful of people in the American West, usually campers and hikers who have come into contact with rodents, test positive for plague.
Globally, plague is most common in Democratic Republic of Congo and Madagascar, according to the WHO.
Could the plague bacteria cause outbreaks?
That’s why public-health monitoring to prevent initial cases from spreading is an important way to guard against wider spread. In its general guidelines for managing plague, the WHO calls pneumonic plague “of particular concern because of the high risk of triggering epidemics.” Any cases of plague, especially pneumonic form, are important to contain quickly, WHO says.
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