Researcher dies after breaking vial of live pathogen; Russia denies plague outbreak risk

Amid speculation about a plague outbreak in Russia — with some raising the possibility of a biological weapon — the country's Federal Service for the Oversight of Consumer Protection and Welfare said Wednesday (local time) there is no epidemic risk linked to the incident.

According to the TASS news agency, the health authority said in a statement that day that contact tracing in the Irkutsk region was 90 percent complete and that no health problems caused by infectious disease had been found. "No emergency situation involving pathogenic microorganisms has been identified," the agency said, adding that it had conveyed this assessment to the World Health Organization. It also said WHO had concluded there was no risk of infectious pneumonia.

The speculation began on Sept. 25, when Darya Shipilova, 28, a researcher at an Irkutsk biosafety laboratory, accidentally broke a vial containing a live pathogen. She developed pneumonia symptoms two days later, on Sept. 27, and was hospitalized on Sept. 29. She died in the hospital's intensive care unit on Friday.

Russian health authorities subsequently listed her cause of death as "pneumonia of undetermined origin." Officials said they tested about 200 people who had been in contact with Shipilova or who may have been exposed to the pathogen along her route, finding only two cases of COVID-19 and two cases of rhinovirus infection.

The British tabloid Daily Mail claimed Tuesday that local media had reported another death in the Irkutsk region. It also alleged that regional authorities in Irkutsk had posted a Telegram message on Saturday saying there was "unofficial information about a confirmed plague case in the city of Shelekhov," only to delete it two hours later.

After the reports emerged, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov dismissed them at a briefing that day, saying "most of what is being said about this situation is disinformation."