Mass quarantine issued in Russia after unexplained death of plague researcher

A mass quarantine has been implemented in Russia following the unexplained death of an infectious disease researcher named Darya Shipilova at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in the town of Shelekhov, Siberia. According to early reports, Shipilova passed away last week from pneumonia of unknown cause, as stated by Rospotrebnadzor, Russia's public health agency.

However, unconfirmed reports have suggested that she may have accidentally broken a test tube containing the plague pathogen, Yersinia pestis, on September 25, leading to her subsequent illness and death on October 2. Initially, the head of the region neighboring Irkutsk, Alexey Tsydenov, claimed that Shipilova had died of plague but later revised his statement to suggest that she may have died of the disease.

Currently, around 200 individuals are under medical observation, several hospitals are in quarantine, and dozens are in isolation due to this incident.