Reports of another Russian dying from the plague have emerged despite the Kremlin scrambling to conceal the death.
Local reports in Russia claim that a mystery second person has contracted and died from the pneumonic plague, but information remains scant as the Daily Mail reports that news articles from Russian media are being scrubbed from the web.
The outbreak began after a researcher at the Russian anti-plague institute, Darya Shipilova, 28, died after contracting “unidentified pneumonia.” Many believe that pneumonic plague could have been behind the pneumonia-like symptoms she suffered from.
Now, a second person is believed to have contracted the illness and died from it, but much remains unknown about the reported death. Russian authorities are yet to publicly acknowledge that there has been a second death at all, according to the Mail.
Meanwhile, Russian articles about the health scare are disappearing from the web. The Mail reports that the federal television channel REN TV has deleted all five of its publications about the plague. The tabloid adds that Moscow’s Channel 5 and the newspaper Kommersant have also deleted articles about the outbreak, and that city officials in Baikalsk, Russia, took down a social post—which urged residents not to travel to Shelekhov district because of the outbreak—hours after it was shared.
Nearly 200 people have also been placed under medical observation in Irkutsk in eastern Siberia after they were exposed to the disease.
Nearby countries like Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan have all stepped up border measures in response to the outbreak. Authorities in one town near the Mongolian border have warned residents to avoid traveling to Shelekhov because of “unofficial information about a confirmed case of plague.”
The World Health Organization has said it is aware of Shipilova’s death and that it has offered support to Russia, but it has not confirmed which disease killed the lab worker.
“All of the patient’s contacts have reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness,” the WHO said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s health agency Rospotrebnadzor said that Shipilova had contracted “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” and that “no microorganisms associated with the employee’s professional duties were detected in samples taken from the patient.”
The pneumonic plague is a rare but potentially fatal infection that remains endemic in several parts of the world. It can be treated with antibiotics if it is identified quickly. The disease is caused by the zoonotic bacterium Yersinia pestis, typically found in small mammals or the fleas that live on them.
Last year, an Arizona resident died after contracting the pneumonic plague after having some sort of interaction with a dead animal that was infected with the disease.
