Russia quarantines hospital after plague institute worker dies of unknown pneumonia

Russian authorities have quarantined a hospital and are monitoring people who came into contact with an employee of a plague research institute in Siberia who contracted pneumonia of an “unknown” cause. Local state TV reported that the woman died last week.

Russian authorities said they found no evidence that her illness was caused by any of the pathogens she worked with. But the case has raised concern in Russia after unconfirmed media reports suggested she may have died from pneumonic plague — a less common but severe form of plague that can spread from person to person.

The woman worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East in Irkutsk, southeastern Siberia. A state TV station in Irkutsk reported Monday that she died last week in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town just outside Irkutsk.

The hospital was placed under quarantine, Mayor Maxim Modin said Friday. It was no longer admitting or discharging patients, while its laboratory had halted routine testing. The hospital's outpatient clinic continued operating as usual, he said.

Anna Popova, head of Russia's public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor, flew to Irkutsk and met with Gov. Igor Kobzev and other officials on Friday.

Kobzev said everyone who had come into contact with the woman was under medical supervision. He did not identify the infection and called it a suspected case of “a particularly dangerous infection.”

Rospotrebnadzor was implementing “a full range of anti-epidemic measures,” he added.

Rospotrebnadzor said Sunday that the woman had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology” and that “extensive” testing found “no microorganisms associated with the patient's professional activities.”

The agency also said it had not uncovered any incidents at the institute “involving pathogenic microorganisms.”

Two people who had been in contact with the woman tested positive for a virus that causes a common cold, while two others tested positive for COVID-19, the agency said. Others who were tested were negative.

Independent local news outlet Lyudi Baikala quoted unidentified sources as saying the woman died from pneumonic plague and that several hospitals in Irkutsk had been placed under quarantine.

Asked Monday to comment on the case, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the public and media should follow official statements from Rospotrebnadzor rather than “rumors or speculation.”

The Irkutsk Aluminum Plant in Shelekhov required staff to wear masks as a precaution, its director Artyom Fominykh said Saturday on Telegram. He called for calm, adding: “Better be safe than sorry.”

The World Health Organization describes pneumonic plague as a less common but severe form of plague, a disease caused by Yersinia pestis, a bacterium usually found in small mammals and their fleas.