Russia’s health regulator debunked rumors on Thursday claiming that a second individual had fallen ill after the death of a worker at a plague research facility in Siberia. The regulator refuted what it labeled as “false information circulating on social media about a second case of illness.” It stated that thorough checks on all contacts of the deceased woman revealed no health issues related to infectious diseases, with nearly 5,000 laboratory tests showing no dangerous pathogens.
The deceased, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, passed away last Friday from pneumonia of an unknown origin. Shipilova, an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia and the Far East, triggered Russian authorities to implement precautionary anti-epidemic measures. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s health watchdog, clarified that the cause of death was unknown pneumonia and that no relevant pathogens were detected in individuals who had contact with her. Authorities mentioned that Shipilova was vaccinated and thus protected against the infections she worked with.
The World Health Organization initially assessed the public risk related to the Russian case as low but expressed the need for more information from Russian authorities to conduct a comprehensive risk evaluation. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus offered assistance to Russia and called for verification of media reports about a second employee with pneumonia of an unknown cause. Health Canada and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also monitored the situation, with both countries stating a low risk to their populations.
The CDC mentioned that the risk to the U.S. from an unconfirmed pneumonic plague case in Siberia was minimal, but preparations were in place to monitor and screen travelers. A port health station at the John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York conducts surveillance and screening for travelers from the impacted region entering the United States. Flights between Russia and the United States have been halted since the onset of the Ukraine conflict in 2022.