Plague Scare In Russia: Lab Worker’s Death, Quarantine Of Hundreds Revive Memories Of COVID-19

Russia is facing concern over a possible plague outbreak after the death of a laboratory worker and the quarantine of hundreds of people who had contact with the deceased worker, with potential exposure to the disease.

The development has revived memories of the COVID-19 pandemic, when an infectious disease triggered widespread public-health restrictions. Talking about COVID-19, the outbreak of the virus began as an epidemic in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 before spreading globally and becoming a worldwide pandemic.

The reported incident has prompted Russian health authorities to take precautionary measures, including isolating people considered to have been in contact with the suspected case. While plague is a serious bacterial infection, health officials have repeatedly stressed that modern antibiotics can effectively treat the disease when it is diagnosed and treated early.

Hundreds placed under quarantine

The 28-year-old researcher working on plague died of severe pneumonia, amid concerns that she may have been exposed to the infection at a laboratory in Russia's Irkutsk region. After that, nearly 200 people have been quarantined and numerous wards placed under lockdown. The incident of death has occurred at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, with the deceased identified as Darya Shipilova.

Chain of events

According to reports, the unfortunate incident occurred at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute,. The exact pathogen involved remains unclear, with Russia's federal infectious disease agency Rospotrebnadzor saying the worker had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown etiology”. According to local medical reports, she told medical staff that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live bacteria while collecting samples for testing. Shipilova was hospitalised on September 29 with severe pneumonia symptoms and placed on ventilator support. She passed away on October 1. Over 200 people with whom she had contact have been placed under quarantine.

What is plague?

Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It is naturally maintained in populations of wild rodents and can spread to humans primarily through the bites of infected fleas. Depending on the form of infection, it can also spread through close contact with an infected person or animal.

The most common form is bubonic plague, which typically causes fever, chills, weakness and painful, swollen lymph nodes known as buboes. Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and is particularly concerning because it can spread through respiratory droplets between people. Pneumonic plague is a serious, fast-developing lung infection caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, and it is the sole type of plague that can be transmitted directly from person to person via respiratory droplets.

Why has it triggered COVID-19 memories?

The decision to quarantine potentially exposed individuals has naturally drawn comparisons with the early stages of COVID-19, when authorities around the world used isolation and contact tracing to prevent further transmission. One of the main hypotheses of COVID-19 suggests that the virus may have accidentally escaped from a research facility of the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV), which studied bat coronaviruses.