A top official with the UN’s health agency doesn’t know how a lab worker in Siberia died amid concerns about plague, and she’s urging Russia to provide more information.
There have been questions and concerns about the death of the 28-year-old woman, identified in Russian media as Darya Shipilova, amid speculation she died of pneumonic plague and that her death may be connected pathogens she worked with at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East.
Maria Van Kerkhove, director of epidemic and pandemic management at the World Health Agency (WHO), said the agency doesn’t know the cause of the woman’s Oct. 2 death, and “this is why we need more information.”
“We don’t understand how she was infected,” Van Kerkhove said during a news briefing in Geneva.
The WHO is also seeking more information about unconfirmed media reports of a second case of pneumonia of “undetermined cause” connected to the Irkutsk lab, in southeastern Siberia.
WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency could not verify the credibility of the reports but is seeking clarification from the relevant officials in Russia.
In a tersely worded statement, Russia’s official public health and consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, does not link the first case to pneumonic plague, saying only that “extensive” testing found no evidence the lab worker’s illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with.
Russia has said she died of pneumonia — a “typical” acute respiratory viral infection — and its health authorities have found no cases of plague recently, the WHO has said, acknowledging that pneumonia is commonplace and that cases of COVID-19 and rhinovirus were present among the some 200 people monitored since that death.
Pneumonic plague is a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.
Plague is an infectious disease caused by a bacterium known as Yersinia pestis, or Y. pestis, that is carried by small mammals and generally spread by the fleas that feed off them. It can be treated with antibiotics but can be deadly if left untreated.
Plague is endemic to Siberia, which was recently confirmed as the location of the first known prehistoric human outbreak of the disease.
Russia insists no plague cases
Moscow previously informed the WHO that no case of plague has been registered in the Irkutsk region.
Russian health authorities reported a full range of preventive measures had been carried out —including tracing the dead woman’s contacts, medical monitoring and lab tests, the WHO said.
The Russian note relayed to The Associated Press by the WHO said the test showed “no presence of dangerous infectious disease pathogens in any of the contacts.”
The organization said it has requested further information to clarify the cause of the severe pneumonia, the pathogen that prompted the public health measures, and media reports of the second case.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov referred all questions to Rospotrebnadzor, which does not mention suspected plague in its reports.
In its latest statement Tuesday, the agency said “the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region … is calm.”
Authorities were completing a “complex of prophylactic measures and medical observation over contacts,” it said, adding that so far they have found two cases of COVID-19 and two of rhinovirus.
Mother not notified
The news outlet Lyudi Baikala identified Shipilova as the deceased lab worker and said she first was hospitalized with cold symptoms Sept. 29, in the nearby town of Shelekhov, and died three days later.
It quoted colleagues as saying she was a highly qualified and diligent researcher, and emphasized that security rules at the facility are extremely strict.
The report quoted Shipilova’s neighbours as saying a team of disinfection experts did several cleanups of her apartment, leaving a strong antiseptic smell.
Researchers work in the institute’s lab in this undated photo released in 2019. (Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and Far East/Handout/The Associated Press)
Shipilova’s mother, who worked as a doctor in the past, described her daughter as hard-working and dedicated, according to independent Russian news outlet Glubina, adding that she had not received official documents describing the cause of death.
Irkutsk Gov. Igor Kobzev said she died of a “particularly dangerous infection” and everyone who came into contact with her has remained under medical supervision.
The hospital where she died was placed under quarantine, no longer admitting or discharging patients, although its outpatient clinic has continued operating, according to Mayor Maxim Modin.
WHO urges transparency
Russian authorities have, however kept a tight lid on information and the speculation she died of pneumonic plague.
While the case has grabbed international attention, Russian state TV and other national state-controlled media have steered clear of the subject. Some state-sponsored news outlets withdrew earlier reports about the case.
Vasily Vlassov, professor at the department of health-care administration and economics at Russia’s Higher School of Economics, says it’s not clear whether more transparency was possible if those dealing with the situation didn’t have enough certainty, and “maybe, they still don’t.”
Deceiving the public “always turns out to be harmful,” he said, and distrust of Russia’s official narrative is “natural” and “almost inevitable.”
Judy Twigg, professor of political science at Virginia Commonwealth University, notes that Russia criminalized “false information” about threats to public safety in 2020 amid the COVID-19 pandemic, “so silence is the one safe move for everyone below the top.”
“Personalist regimes without electoral accountability tend to treat bad news as a loyalty problem rather than focusing on the actual problem to be addressed,” she said.
