Russia denies lab accident, calls situation ‘stable’
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the State Department is monitoring the death of a Russian laboratory researcher who may have died from the pneumonic plague, though he said he did not believe there was cause for alarm. The worker, 28-year-old Darya Shipilova, was employed at an anti-plague research institute in Irkutsk, Russia, where she fell ill at work and died two days later.
Rubio, acknowledging the reports out of Russia, said that infection may have spread within the lab. “There’s very limited travel between the U.S. and Russia, obviously,” Rubio said. “But like anything else, something that gets out, it just quickly spreads.”
Russian media outlets have speculated that an accident at the laboratory led to Shipilova’s infection with the plague. Rospotrebnadzor, Russia’s official agency for health oversight, attributed the death to a pneumonia infection “of unknown aetiology” and said the worker was not found to have any micro-organisms related to her work at the research lab.
The Russian government has denied any accident at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute, calling the “sanitary and epidemiological situation” “stable.” Media outlets in Siberia reported the facility was placed into lockdown.
The cause of Shipilova’s illness remained under investigation, with Russian authorities not specifying how she fell ill at work.