Rumors of a deadly outbreak raced far beyond Russia’s borders after reports surfaced of a plague laboratory worker dying in Siberia — yet on the streets of the city where she worked, residents largely shrugged off the alarm.
The death was first reported on Friday, when several Russian media outlets said the laboratory worker had died from pneumonic plague, a highly contagious form of the disease, and that dozens of people had been quarantined.
Russian officials sought to tamp down those claims this week, saying postmortem tests did not detect plague in her body and that no special measures had been introduced.
“If it were really serious, I think they would have shut everything down by now,” one man, who did not provide his name, told AFP in the remote Siberian city of Irkutsk.
“As it stands, nobody really seems to care,” he added.
Another man in Irkutsk said he had urged his parents to take basic precautions such as washing their hands, but stressed he did not see the situation as a “serious threat”.
On Friday, Russian news outlet People of Baikal reported that the laboratory technician — identified as 28-year-old Darya Shipilova — may have contracted plague after a test tube broke.
Other media outlets also pointed to a possible connection between her death and a laboratory accident at the facility.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio previously said Washington was watching developments closely and urged Russia to be “transparent”.
‘We can handle it’
In Irkutsk, some residents voiced doubts that plague had played any role in the woman’s death.
“I don’t think it was actually plague,” one man in the city said, without giving their name.
Plague is a bacterial disease that can present in several forms, including pneumonic plague — the most contagious type — which can spread through respiratory transmission.
Pneumonic plague can be fatal if not treated early, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
At a press briefing earlier today, a WHO spokesman said the risk from the incident appeared to be “moderate to low”.
The governor of the Irkutsk region said health authorities had found no evidence that the woman died of plague.
US President Donald Trump yesterday offered help to Russia.
Moscow, however, appeared to push back, saying it was ready to assist the United States with its own infectious diseases.
“At first, they said a young woman had been brought in and had died. Then, there started to be denials and so on. But today I read that Trump wants to help the city of Irkutsk,” said another man in Irkutsk.
“We can handle it ourselves,” the man added.
