The woman died last week in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk. According to Governor Igor Kobzev, she had been “infected with a particularly dangerous infection,” writes Meduza, a Russian news outlet in exile.
Since it emerged that the woman worked at the Irkutsk anti-plague institute - and several hospitals in the city were subsequently placed under quarantine - concerns about a pneumonic plague outbreak have grown. According to The Moscow Times, nearly 200 people who had been in contact with the woman have been isolated in hospitals.
However, it has not been confirmed that the infection is plague.
Russia has neither confirmed nor denied the information. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said people should “not rely on rumors and speculation.”
US President Donald Trump says the incident could pose “a big problem for Russia” and that he is prepared to provide US assistance.
Wear a face mask
"So far, we only have media reports of a case of pneumonic plague caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. There has been no official report from Russia to the international reporting system," deputy state epidemiologist Klara Sondén tells TT.
According to the local newspaper Baikalfolket, residents of Shelekhov and Irkutsk are now buying antibiotics and wearing face masks and gloves in public places. However, Russia’s federal agency for health and consumer protection, Rospotrebnadzor, says “the situation is stable.”
The variant suspected in Russia can spread through the air and cause pneumonic plague. The risk of it spreading from Russia to Sweden is extremely small, according to Klara Sondén.
The infection does not usually spread between countries. It is most often a matter of local outbreaks.
Several countries affected
Yersinia pestis can cause different diseases depending on how a person contracts it. The most common route of infection is a bite from a flea that has fed on an infected rodent. This causes bubonic plague, which does not spread between people.
There was an outbreak of pneumonic plague, which spreads between people, in Madagascar in 2017. In Sweden, however, we have not had any cases, says Klara Sondén.
The Public Health Agency of Sweden is monitoring the case under the International Health Regulations, which require countries to report cases of the disease to the World Health Organization (WHO).
Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis and occurs as bubonic plague, pneumonic plague or septicemic plague.
Plague has been one of the most feared diseases in history. During the Black Death in the Middle Ages, when all three forms of plague were rampant, an estimated one in three people in Europe died from the disease.
Plague is transmitted to humans from rodents via infected fleas, but can also spread between people. Today, cases occur sporadically in Asia, Africa, and North and South America.
In pneumonic plague, the disease progresses particularly rapidly. Without treatment, the mortality rate is almost 100 percent.
Facts: Public Health Agency of Sweden
