Contact monitoring launched after the death of a laboratory worker at a plague research facility in Siberia has been completed in Russia. The health supervisory authority and the regional administration announced that no dangerous pathogen was detected in approximately 5,000 samples.
Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said experts had assessed the situation in detail and that the process had been successfully concluded. Kobzev described the work as a comprehensive test.
Connection to plague remains unclear
Twenty-eight-year-old laboratory worker Darya Shipilova died on 2 October. Russian authorities said Shipilova had died of pneumonia but had been unable to determine the cause of the illness.
Authorities also said Shipilova had received the necessary vaccinations and that microorganisms connected to the procedures she carried out had not been found in her body. However, no definitive statement was made on whether plague caused her death.
WHO requests information on test results
Maria Van Kerkhove, a World Health Organization official, said Russia had been asked for more information about the laboratory tests conducted and the pathogens examined. Kerkhove said that if the death was not believed to have been caused by plague, the reason for the worker’s death should be explained.
Russia announced that it had provided the World Health Organization with all the necessary information under the procedures in force.
Pneumonia can result from different infections
Pneumonia cases with undetermined causes have been monitored more closely by global health authorities and the media since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to plague, pneumonia can be caused by other bacterial infections as well as viral respiratory illnesses such as COVID-19 and influenza.
