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The Kremlin has been accused by The Sun of concealing information about a suspected plague outbreak in Russia’s Irkutsk region after a 28-year-old laboratory worker died and nearly 200 people were placed under medical observation.
The woman was identified by Russian and regional media as Daria Shipilova, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute. Reports said she died after developing severe pneumonia and being hospitalized in Shelekhov. Some reports have described the illness as pneumonic plague, although Russian authorities have not publicly confirmed the diagnosis.
According to media reports, Shipilova may have been exposed after accidentally breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria while collecting samples. Other accounts have suggested she could have contracted the infection during field work. The circumstances remain under investigation.
Anna Popova, head of Russia’s consumer and public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, traveled from Moscow to Irkutsk to take part in an emergency meeting on the situation. Regional authorities have described the case only as a suspected “particularly dangerous infection.”
Up to 197 people who may have had contact with the woman were reportedly identified, while 189 were hospitalized for observation. On October 2, Irkutsk Governor Igor Kobzev said the people under observation had no symptoms and that laboratory tests were negative at that time.
The Shelekhov district hospital was placed under quarantine, and authorities introduced additional epidemic-control measures. Public events in the region were also canceled, according to local reports.
The Sun reported that antibiotics had become difficult to find in some pharmacies as residents began stocking up and that a local recommendation to limit travel to Shelekhov was later removed. These reports have not been independently confirmed.
U.S.-based Russian epidemiologist Mikhail Favorov has also questioned the official handling of the case and suggested that more information should be made public. His comments reflect his assessment and do not establish that Russian authorities are deliberately concealing an outbreak.
The latest reports point to a serious suspected plague incident centered on one laboratory worker, but there is currently no confirmed evidence of wider human-to-human transmission among those placed under observation.
