The recent death of a lab worker at a plague research institute sparked fears of another pandemic. But on 7 October, Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said it was ending precautionary measures and that most of the nearly 200 people put under quarantine have been released, after tests found no dangerous pathogens. Was this all much ado about nothing?
After all, we still don’t know what caused the pneumonia that killed the lab worker, nor, if it was plague, how she became infected. And the most pressing question of all: why did Russia respond so dramatically to her death? The measures taken went beyond what would be expected for a case of plague.
There are two broad possibilities: conspiracy or colossal screw-up. Nearly 200 people isolated after lab worker in Russia dies of plague What we know is that Daria Shipilova, a 28-year-old lab worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia, died of pneumonia on 2 October, three days after being admitted to a local hospital. A “DN Shipilova” is an author on an abstract from a conference earlier this year about testing plague strains for antibiotic resistance, suggesting Shipilova worked directly with the plague bacterium Yersinia pestis.
After her death, nearly 200 people who might have had contact with her were placed in quarantine. Around 60 employees at the institute were reportedly locked in for days, and Federal Security Service officers escorted ambulances carrying those quarantined. The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, is said to have travelled to Irkutsk – a 6-hour flight from Moscow – on 2 October for an emergency meeting about “a particularly dangerous infection”, and some local companies imposed mask mandates.
The thing is, there are many plague cases around the world each year and they don’t trigger this kind of response. This is because basic hygiene measures can prevent the spread of the bacterium, while prompt treatment with antibiotics can stop people who might have been infected from developing any symptoms. DNA evidence shows that plague bacteria devastated a community in Siberia more than 5000 years ago, challenging the idea that there were no major disease outbreaks before the advent of farming and large settlements For instance, in 2025, a young man in Arizona died of pneumonic plague – where Y. pestis infects the lungs – acquired from sick cats.
The 46 people he had potentially been in contact with were given a seven-day course of antibiotics, in line with guidelines from the World Health Organization. So why did Russia quarantine all contacts? One explanation is that health officials knew Shipilova was exposed to something more dangerous than a natural strain of Y. pestis.
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