A young woman died... from pneumonic plague!

A 28-year-old woman died of plague at the Shelekhov District Hospital in the Irkutsk region on the night of October 2. The head of Buryatia, Alexey Tsidenov, confirmed that the cause of death was indeed plague. The hospital suspended the admission and discharge of patients in several departments. The inpatient facility was placed under quarantine, while the outpatient clinic continues to operate. According to regional media, the deceased may have worked as a laboratory technician at an anti-plague institution. The publication "People of Baikal" reports that her name was Daria Shipilova, and on September 25, she broke a test tube containing the causative agent of pneumonic plague. According to information provided by "Izvestia," 197 people who had contact with the deceased have been identified. 189 of them were hospitalized. The governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, reported on October 2 that the identified contacts currently show no signs of illness, and the results of laboratory tests are negative. The last registered case of human plague in Russia prior to this incident dates back to 2016. At that time, the infection was identified in a 10-year-old boy in the Altai Republic, who had participated in the butchering of a marmot. The child was not vaccinated and suffered a severe form of the disease, but doctors managed to save him due to early detection and the initiation of treatment.