Five hospitals in Siberia's Irkutsk region have been closed and placed under quarantine for a minimum of three weeks following a suspected plague outbreak, according to reports from the independent media outlet Baikal People. The medical centres were shut after a 28-year-old laboratory technician died from an "unspecified form of plague" in Russia.
Lab worker death triggers closures
The incident occurred at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute on September 25th, when Darya Shipilova reportedly broke a test tube containing live Yersinia pestis, the bacteria that causes plague, a severe infectious disease found mainly in small mammals and their fleas. The illness has since spread from affecting one hospital to five.
The affected hospitals are said to include City Clinical Hospitals Nos. 1, 3, and 10, as well as the Ivano-Matreninskaya City Children's Clinical Hospital. Health authorities in Siberia's Irkutsk region have confirmed that nearly 200 people are under medical observation, according to media reports, and no one is allowed to leave or visit relatives at any of the named hospitals.
Mask mandate and security measures
A mask mandate, similar to that introduced in the UK during Covid times, has now been introduced at the huge aluminum plant in Irkutsk. Quoting a source in the healthcare sector, Baikal People reports that doctors in Irkutsk are "already openly talking about the plague."
The Moscow Times reported that Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighbouring republic of Buryatia, confirmed that the woman had died from an unspecified form of plague. It is also claimed that ambulances transporting contacts for testing have been escorted by officers of the FSB, Russia's federal security service.
Some U.S. politicians are now calling for commercial air travel to and from Russia to be stopped until the situation is clarified. The first symptoms of pneumonic plague typically start about 4 to 7 days after exposure, and at present it is believed there are some 200 people under observation.
