WHO finds no evidence of ongoing transmission after Irkutsk laboratory worker's death

The World Health Organization said available information did not indicate ongoing transmission following the death of a worker at an Irkutsk plague research institute. Its October 10 bulletin also stressed that the cause of her severe pneumonia remains undetermined.

Russian authorities told WHO that tests on the deceased worker and her contacts were negative for the high-threat pathogens investigated. According to the information supplied, no linked cases of severe pneumonia were identified and contacts remained without symptoms.

The employee of the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East died on October 2. Russian media identified her as Darya Shipilova, a twenty-eight-year-old laboratory technician. About two hundred people were quarantined after her death.

Rospotrebnadzor classified the illness as pneumonia of unknown cause. The regulator said post-mortem testing did not detect plague and that the employee had been vaccinated against dangerous infections associated with her work.

WHO's new bulletin says the missing diagnosis prevents it from independently assessing whether the period of contact monitoring was sufficient. A laboratory-associated exposure cannot yet be fully excluded. Such an exposure has not been confirmed.

The organisation will continue monitoring and seeks further clinical, epidemiological and laboratory information. Based on available information, WHO does not recommend travel or trade restrictions related to this event.