WHO issues update on suspect plague outbreak in Russia following urgent request

The World Health Organisation has provided an update on a case in Russia where a person died of suspected plague and 200 people were quarantined.

WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told TASS news agency that they were in contact with Russian health authorities 'to verify the event, its circumstances, the laboratory tests underway, and their results, the rationale for contact-tracing and the health status of contacts, as well as any potential international public health implication'.

He said in a further statement based on' unofficial information' that 'the public health risk to the general population appears to be low'.

The WHO official added that the contacts of the person who died have 'reportedly been identified and are being monitored for illness, and none to date have shown symptoms of illness'.

Darya Shipilova, 28, fell ill and died from ‘pneumonia of unknown etiology’ (Darya Shipilova)

Fears of a suspected pneumonic plague outbreak in Russia began after a 28-year-old lab worker at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute in Siberia died after reportedly coming into contact with the pathogen.

Local media claimed that Daria Shipilova fell unwell after 'breaking a test tube', but what is known is that she was taken to hospital with severe pneumonia symptoms on 29 September and placed on a ventilator.

She died two days later.

Five hospitals and colleges were placed into lockdown and around 200 people she came into contact with were quarantined, and from the WHO's update it sounds as though all of the contacts the 28-year-old had were successfully traced.

Infectious disease physician Dr Tyler Evans told LADbible said there were challenges involved with 'defining is it plague' and 'defining an outbreak'.

The WHO says nobody who came into contact with Shipilova has shown signs of the plague (Facebook)

He said if the Russian government was being transparent about the outbreak then the disease had a 'quite low' risk of spreading, putting the threat to the local area as two out of 10 and the threat to the world as one out of 10.

"This was in a laboratory in a low densely populated area Siberia, theoretically with an infrastructure and highly trained individuals that know how to respond to something like this."

Dr Evans also noted that quarantine was not isolation, so it didn't mean they'd also been infected with the plague.

What is pneumonic plague?

Pneumonic plague is one of three kinds of recognised plague, alongside bubonic and septicaemic, bubonic is the kind that caused 'The Black Death' you may have heard of in history, though pneumonic is deadlier if you catch it.

It is caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, usually found in small mammals and their fleas and can be contracted by humans via bites from infected fleas, unprotected contact with infected bodily fluids, or the inhalation of particles from a patient with pneumonic plague.

According to the World Health Organisation, pneumonic - or lung-based - plague is the most virulent form of plague.

“Incubation can be as short as 24 hours,” WHO writes.

“Any person with pneumonic plague may transmit the disease via respiratory particles to other humans. Untreated pneumonic plague, if not diagnosed and treated early, can be fatal.”

However, the organisation also notes that recovery rates are ‘high’ if the disease is detected and treated within 24 hours of onset symptoms.