A Russian agency links the lab worker’s death to ‘pneumonia of unknown’ origin.
Published On 5 Oct 2026
An employee of a Russian plague research institute in the remote Siberian region of Irkutsk has died of a suspected pneumonic plague infection, regional officials have said, even as dozens of others have been placed under quarantine.
Alexei Tsydenov, the governor of the Buryatia region, said in a post on his Telegram channel on Saturday that a woman in the neighbouring Irkutsk region had “died, maybe of the plague”.
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Tsydenov, however, tried to reassure the local population by insisting that Russian authorities had confirmed the woman had not travelled to Buryatia.
Russia’s official TASS news agency separately reported on Sunday that the country’s consumer watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, said in a statement that an employee of the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East had been diagnosed with “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.
The watchdog also said it had expanded testing of samples from the patient and found no microorganisms associated with her professional activities. Media reports say authorities in Siberia’s Irkutsk have placed nearly 200 people under medical observation.
The US Department of State, in a statement to Al Jazeera, said Washington was “monitoring the situation closely with the CDC [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention] and our other interagency partners”.
“We encourage Russian authorities to share accurate information quickly and openly,” the State Department official said in the statement.
Pneumonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the plague is highly infectious and can be fatal if not treated early.
Local media named the woman who died as 28-year-old laboratory technician Darya Shipilova.
