A 28-year-old woman, Darya Shipilova, died of pneumonic plague in the Shelekhov District Hospital in Russia's Irkutsk region on October 1-2. Reports say she worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute and broke a test tube containing the pathogen on September 25; other accounts mention travel to Thailand. Regional authorities have confirmed a "particularly dangerous infection" and Buryatia's head Alexey Tsydenov confirmed plague as the cause of death.
The hospital's inpatient department was quarantined. Of 197 people identified as contacts, 189 were hospitalized for observation; none showed signs of illness and lab tests were negative so far. Russia's chief sanitary officer Anna Popova attended a special regional meeting.
The last registered human plague case in Russia was in 2016 in the Altai Republic. Details of the lab accident remain unconfirmed by officials.