Dozens Quarantined in Siberia After Plague Lab Worker Dies

Moscow, Oct. 5, 2026 (Reuters)Russian authorities have placed dozens of people in quarantine after a laboratory worker at a plague research institute in Siberia fell ill and died in circumstances that have not been made public.

 

The death, in the Irkutsk region, has stirred public health fears on social media. Authorities said on Monday that the situation was under control, and the head of Russia's health watchdog has visited the region.

 

Local media identified the woman as Darya Shipilova, an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. Her age was given as 28.

 

Reports conflict on how and where she fell ill. Authorities said she died of pneumonia whose origin has not yet been established.

 

Rumours spread on social media that the woman had dropped a test tube containing live bacteria. Russia's health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, told state media the institute had found no evidence of any accident involving the handling of pathogens.

 

Even so, Anna Popova, the head of Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Siberia over the weekend for an emergency meeting.

 

An unspecified number of people who had been in contact with the woman were quarantined. Parts of the hospital in the town of Shelekhov, where she died, were cordoned off, and an aluminium plant told its workers to wear masks.

 

Authorities urged residents to remain calm and said there was no evidence linking the woman's death to her work.

 

Igor Kobzev, governor of the Irkutsk region, said in a statement that she died of "pneumonia of unknown aetiology."

 

"Importantly, over the past few days, no new cases of staff from the Anti-Plague Institute seeking medical attention have been identified," Kobzev said.

 

He said the situation was under control, adding that all known contacts of the woman had been identified, examined and placed under medical supervision.

 

Plague is endemic to Siberia, the site of the first known prehistoric human outbreak. The bacterium that causes the disease, “Yersinia pestis”, circulates among small wild mammals in the region's vast wilderness and the fleas that live on them.

 

Russians rarely contract plague, although cases occur every year in other parts of the world, notably Africa.

 

The disease takes three forms, each affecting a different part of the body. Pneumonic plague, an infection of the lungs, causes patients to cough out infectious airborne droplets.

 

If identified quickly, it can be treated with antibiotics. Left untreated, it can be fatal within one to six days. (Reuters)