CNN Central News & Network-ITDC India Epress/ITDC News Bhopal: Moscow. Concerns over infection have increased after the death of a female employee of an anti-plague research institute in Russia’s Siberia region. Darya Shipilova, 28, who worked at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, was admitted to hospital after a serious illness. She died on October 2. Russian health authorities have described her illness as pneumonia of unknown cause and have not confirmed plague infection.
After the woman’s death, around 200 people who had come into contact with her were placed under medical observation or in isolation. Several employees of the institute were also kept under observation. However, according to Russia’s health surveillance agency, no plague-causing pathogen was found in the woman or her contacts. The World Health Organization has also said, on the basis of available information, that the risk to the general population is currently very low. Plague is a serious infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. It usually reaches humans through infected fleas and small mammals. Its three main forms are bubonic, septicemic and pneumonic plague. Pneumonic plague affects the lungs and can spread from an infected person to another person through respiratory particles.
Plague is treatable, and timely antibiotic treatment significantly increases a patient’s chances of survival. According to the World Health Organization, it is extremely important to begin treatment for pneumonic plague quickly. At present, there has been no publicly confirmed confirmation of plague infection in the Irkutsk case, so it would be premature to call it a possible plague outbreak.
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