Darya Shipilova is said to have been exposed to the pathogen while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia

Hundreds of people have been placed into quarantine in Siberia after a laboratory worker died of suspected plague, according to reports.

Darya Shipilova, an employee at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, was exposed to the bacteria after she accidentally broke a test tube containing the pathogen while she was collecting samples, the Kyiv Independent reported.

She was hospitalised on 29 September with severe pneumonia of "unknown origin” and placed on a ventilator, but died shortly after.

Independent Russian outlet Lyudi Baikal reported that several hospitals in the city of Irkutsk had closed for a three-week quarantine.

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[–] 55 points 3 days ago* (14 children)

For all folks concerned of massive epidemic:

  • The people who contacted her after the incident are isolated, the hospital quarantined
  • Yes, there is a vaccine. People are not commonly vaccinated because plague is very rare nowadays, but they can be as needed.
  • It can be cured by antibiotics. Care needs to be prompt though, and that's what Daria very recklessly missed. Fatal mistake for someone who oopsied in a pathogen lab.

Also, to those concerned that this is a biological weapon lab:

  • This would be the most stupid and inefficient biological weapon. Again, we have the vaccine AND the cure.
  • Disease research institutes are a normal thing throughout the world. We need them to efficiently combat outbreaks should they ever reappear.
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    [–] 233 points 4 days ago (31 children)

    Hopefully it's contained, because if we get another pandemic conservatives are going to do everything in their power to make it kill as many people as possible.

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    [–] 14 points 3 days ago (2 children)

    Plague is caused by a bacterium not a virus!

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    [–] 87 points 4 days ago* (last edited 4 days ago) (23 children)
  • [–] 45 points 4 days ago (2 children)

    Assuming of course, to be pessimistic, it hasn't been weaponized. Siberian Anti-Plague Research facility doesn't fill me with confidence, and you'd expect the hospital to have tried antibiotics, granted they may have been too late or used the wrong ones.

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  • [–] 31 points 4 days ago*

    My 'favourite' fact about Soviet-era bioweapons is that they had a facility on an island in the Aral Sea. Said sea vanished from existence after the Kremlin redirected all the rivers which fed it in an effort to grow cotton in the desert, causing it to shrink to some 10% or less of its original volume. As well as destroying the livelihoods of the fishermen of Aralsk in Kazakhstan, it also made the island full of fucking anthrax among other things part of the mainland.

    I'll say this for the Soviets, they didn't do environmental disasters by halves. Also as a Briton we had our own anthrax island in Scotland from the war that was only decontaminated in the '90s.

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  • [–] 36 points 4 days ago (9 children)

    So if it’s easily treated, and I’m sure they knew this at the lab, why did the worker die?

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  • [–] 49 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    Many possible explanations.

    • Russia lying again to justify death of someome they wanted dead
    • Russia lying again to try to scare the world into thinking they have some unknown bioweapon
    • Russia lying again that this whole ordeal happened to make the world think they have scientists working on bioweapons
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    [–] 7 points 2 days ago (2 children)

    https://www.kyivpost.com/post/78544

    "Accuse your enemies of that which you plan to do."

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  • [–] 8 points 2 days ago (1 child)

    One of my personal "Rules of Life" is that people are most suspicious of behavior they are most likely to perform. Thieves always think people are stealing from them, cheaters always think someone is cheating on them, etc. They have to believe that, so they can keep performing the behavior, but blame it on others - you do it (even if they don't), so it's okay if I do it.

    Trump lives by this code, he's always accusing people of stealing, cheating, etc., and then does it himself "in retaliation," when what he's really doing is just helping himself to whatever he wants.

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  • [–] 52 points 4 days ago (2 children)
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    [–] 94 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    Aw shit, here we go again…

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  • [–] 65 points 4 days ago (4 children)

    Anti-Plague Research Institute

    I bet I know what this mystery virus is

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    [–] 24 points 3 days ago (4 children)

    How could Joe Biden and the Democrats let this happen! They're only doing this yo make Trump look bad, and after the election it will conveniently disappear.

    • stuff said by right-wingers about covid in mid-2020
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    [–] 39 points 4 days ago

    They really are going all out for the midterms. A new pandemic

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  • [–] 44 points 4 days ago (2 children)
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    [–] 42 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    oh hey look somebody wrote a book about this exact scenario recently...

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    [–] 10 points 3 days ago (5 children)

    There are cases of Human plague, caused by Yersinia pestis, in the United States now.

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    [–] 53 points 4 days ago (7 children)

    Wow. What’s Putin doing, manufacturing plague to deal with Ukraine?

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    [–] 20 points 3 days ago (3 children)

    Does the author not know that there's a difference between a virus and a bacterium?

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    [–] 17 points 3 days ago* (10 children)

    Anyone who wants something extra to feel anxious about should read the hot zone by Richard Preston. It's about Ebola, not plague, but it's. . . alarming. Ebola is a virus, not a bacteria like plague, but the difficulty of containment even in secure labs, and the possibilities of mutation - as far as I know, they're not dissimilar. Especially if a government lab has been fucking around trying to weaponise it, as I suspect happened here.

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    [–] 34 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    “Anti Plague Research Institute”.

    That’s a funny way of translating “Illegal Biological Warfare Institute”.

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    [–] 40 points 4 days ago (1 child)

    So if Putin calls it the Anti-Plague Research Institute we can be pretty sure they're actively creating plagues right?

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    [–] 12 points 3 days ago (11 children)

    Plague isn't a virus. Sigh.

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