Was There a Plague?

The death of an employee at the anti-plague institute in the Shelekhov hospital sparked rumors about a plague outbreak, quarantine, and the closure of medical facilities. Official reports and information circulating on social media diverged. Let's figure out what really happened in the Irkutsk region. Where the version about the plague came from The story began on the evening of October 1. The inpatient department of the district hospital in Shelekhov, located in a former COVID hospital, was closed. Restrictions were imposed due to suspicion of a 'particularly dangerous infection' in a patient who later died. The outpatient clinic, meanwhile, continued to accept patients as usual. Social media and Telegram channels began to spread the version that the woman might have contracted the plague at work. Later, the head of Buryatia, Alexey Tsidenov, wrote about an allegedly identified case of plague in the Irkutsk region, but the message was subsequently edited. Publications also mentioned a possible broken container with the pathogen. There was no official confirmation of this detail. What did the tests show? On October 4, Rospotrebnadzor reported that the cause of death was pneumonia of unidentified etiology, not plague. Specialists conducted extensive laboratory tests and did not find microorganisms in the patient's biological materials that could be related to her work at the anti-plague institute. The governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, stated that the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and the Shelekhov district remains stable. According to him, in the past few days, employees of the anti-plague institute had not approached doctors with new cases of illness. Were hospitals closed for quarantine? Messages also appeared on social media about quarantine in several hospitals in Irkutsk, including city hospitals No. 1, 3, and 10, the Ivano-Matreninskaya Children's Hospital, and one of the maternity hospitals. The regional government denied this: all medical facilities in Irkutsk continue to operate as usual. Journalists checked the operations of several hospitals and found no restrictions on patient admissions. The restrictions only affected the inpatient department of the Shelekhov district hospital, which was closed in the early days after the patient's death, the portal 66.ru reported. What is wrong with the version about the plague Doctor of Medical Sciences, specialist in particularly dangerous infections Vladimir Nikiforov stated that the version of accidental plague infection at the anti-plague institute seems dubious. According to him, pathogens of the first class of pathogenicity are handled in sealed boxes and special protective suits. "If the deceased girl had indeed accidentally broken a test tube with plague, nothing terrible would have happened. There are special safety protocols for such cases: the box is isolated and treated with chloramine inside, which destroys pathogenic microorganisms. People protected by suits come out of there alive and healthy," he told the Parliamentary Newspaper. The expert also added that if there was a suspicion of plague, the employee of the relevant institute should probably have been treated in a specialized hospital, not in a regular one. Moreover, other infections can cause a similar clinical picture.