Vladimir Putin’s plague mystery has taken a turn for the worse.
The death of 28-year-old lab worker Darya Shipilova in Siberia’s Irkutsk region has sparked fears that pneumonic plague could have been behind the so-called pneumonia symptoms she suffered.
Staff at the Irkutsk City Perinatal Center in the region have screened patients for exposure to the bacterium yersinia pestis following the death of the anti-plague institute employee, according to independent outlet Lyudi Baikala, cited by the Moscow Times.
The maternity center has been closed to everyone except staff and patients since last week, Blogger Ulyana Gavryunina revealed after she was checked in on Monday, the Times reported.
She said that when she arrived, staff gave her a checklist to complete to determine whether she had any symptoms of suspected plague, had been in contact with people who had arrived from overseas, or had been around anyone who was sick.
She also claimed that the center had introduced a mandate for everyone to wear a mask, and had prevented partners from attending births.
Shipilova exhibited symptoms of pneumonia in the nearby town of Shelekhov, and the town’s hospital was soon quarantined. Some 189 people contact traced to her were placed under observation.
Russian authorities have denied that she had the plague, but reports have persisted.
Russia’s health agency Rospotrebnadzor said that she 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.”
“No case of this dangerous disease has been recorded in the city of Irkutsk, Russian Federation,” Russian authorities told the World Health Organization. The comments were later read out at a briefing in Geneva, Switzerland, by WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier, Reuters reports.
The WHO also said that none of her contacts were showing symptoms.
She is understood to have fallen ill at work in Irkutsk, amid unsubstantiated rumors that she may have dropped a test tube while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East. These claims have not been verified.
Head of the nearby Republic of Buryatia, Alexey Tsydenov, however, edited an initial post saying she had died of the plague to say she had “possibly” done so.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that the U.S. was “watching and monitoring it closely.
“I don’t think it’s cause for alarm, but it is cause for focus and a cause just to keep an eye on it.”
Speaking the following day, he said, “I think it’s incumbent upon Russia to obviously share more information with the world,” according to CNN. “Maybe it’s bigger than we thought. We don’t know, but I think it would be reckless at this moment, given the limited information we still have, to speculate.”
Nearby countries Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have all stepped up border measures.
Maxim Modin, the mayor of Shelekhovsky district, meanwhile, announced that “comprehensive” “anti-epidemic measures” were being introduced in the region.
