What is currently happening in the Irkutsk region, where a laboratory assistant at a scientific institute died of plague?
Several Irkutsk hospitals have been closed for a three-week quarantine, but authorities claim there was no accident at the anti-plague institute.
Daria Shipilova
On October 2, 28-year-old Daria Shipilova, a laboratory assistant at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, died. It is known that a week before this, the girl broke a test tube containing the causative agent of pneumonic plague and soon felt unwell; she was hospitalized. What is currently happening in the Irkutsk region?
Several Irkutsk hospitals have been closed for a three-week quarantine, and a mask regime has been introduced at the Irkutsk Aluminum Plant amid reports of plague in the region, "Astra" writes.
Rospotrebnadzor stated that "pneumonia of unknown etiology" was found in the deceased employee of the anti-plague institute.
The publication "Lyudi Baikala" reported that several Irkutsk hospitals have been closed for a three-week quarantine, among them City Clinical Hospitals No. 1, 3, 10, as well as the Ivan-Matroninskaya City Children's Clinical Hospital.
As the publication writes, citing a source in the healthcare sector, Irkutsk doctors "are already openly talking about plague." At the same time, plague does not appear in the documents submitted to medical institutions.
"Selective quarantine is not applied for pneumonic plague — restrictions are immediately introduced for all medical institutions," the publication quotes its source.
It is unknown whether all Irkutsk hospitals are closed, but strict restrictions are in effect in the inpatient departments of closed institutions: patients are not allowed to see relatives, but they are allowed to transfer belongings or food.
Quarantine has been introduced in at least one city maternity hospital. As a family of one of the women in labor told the publication, doctors reported that the cause was plague.
On October 3, Artem Fominykh, director of the Irkutsk Aluminum Plant (IrkAZ) of the RUSAL company, reported that a mask regime had been introduced at the enterprise as a preventive measure in connection with the spread of "rumors and contradictory information." The plant is located in Shelekhov, where an employee of the anti-plague institute previously died in a hospital.
At the same time, TASS, citing Rospotrebnadzor, reports that the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov, is stable. The department stated that there were no accidents involving pathogenic microorganisms at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, and the institute's employee was found to have "pneumonia of unknown etiology," not plague. They added that no reports of infectious diseases among the institute's employees have been registered.
Earlier it was reported that the Shelekhov District Hospital, where laboratory assistant Daria Shipilova died, was closed for quarantine in the Irkutsk region.
The head of Rospotrebnadzor, Anna Popova, arrived in the region. The governor of the Irkutsk region, Kobzev, reported suspicion of a resident of the region contracting "a particularly dangerous infection," without specifying which one.
The Baikal authorities later deleted a message requesting not to visit the city of Shelekhov, where an employee of the anti-plague institute died in a hospital.