Russia’s health regulator dismissed on Thursday the claims of a second individual falling ill after the death of a worker at a plague research facility in Siberia. The regulator refuted what it termed as “false information spreading on social media about a second case of illness.”
According to the regulator, thorough checks were conducted on all contacts of the deceased woman, revealing no health issues related to infectious diseases. Nearly 5,000 laboratory tests showed no presence of dangerous pathogens.
The 28-year-old lab employee, Daria Shipilova, who succumbed to pneumonia of unknown origin, worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia. Russian authorities swiftly implemented precautionary anti-epidemic measures in response to the incident.
Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, stated that Shipilova’s death resulted from an unspecified type of pneumonia, with no relevant pathogens identified in individuals who had contact with her. The officials confirmed her vaccination status, rendering her immune to the dangerous infections she handled.
The World Health Organization assessed the public risk of the case as low initially but expressed the challenge of providing a comprehensive risk evaluation due to insufficient information from Russian authorities. The WHO extended assistance to Russia and requested verification of media reports on a second employee with unexplained pneumonia.
Health Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) are actively monitoring the situation. Health Canada indicated no current risk to the country, while the CDC deemed the risk to the U.S. from a potential pneumonic plague case in Siberia as extremely low.
The CDC maintains a port health station at John F. Kennedy International Airport for surveillance and screening of travellers from the region entering the U.S. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not immediately comment on potential screening measures.
Approximately 200 individuals from the Siberian region travel to the United States annually, with direct flights between Russia and the U.S. suspended since the onset of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.