Plague Stalks The World Again?

Is there a threat that the scourge of the plague, is about to reappear? ....

Plague Stalking Again?

.... I ask because news reports initiated in the US, said that a Russian laboratory technician was killed by an “pneumonia of unknown etiology,” possibly accidentally released from the Anti-plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk, just north of the Mongolian border.

However, Alexei Tsydenov, the head of the neighbouring Russian republic of Buryatia, felt obliged to chip in, and stated that the a 28-year old woman, named in local media as Darya Shipilov, an employee of the Institute had died “possibly from the plague.” He also added that “there are no plague outbreaks” in his republic. Igor Kobzev, the governor of Irkutsk then urged for calm in connection with the “suspected case of a particularly dangerous infection affecting a resident of the region.” .... not especially reassuring eh? 

Adding to the unease, the Irkutsk Aluminium Plant near the laboratory, urged staff to wear face masks as a precaution saying that “there are many rumours and conflicting reports circulating.” Other, unconfirmed local news reports suggested that as many as 200 people had been, or were, placed under observation at the same hospital in Shelekhov as where the laboratory technician was taken before she died. Artem Fominikh, the director of the aluminium plant stated on Telegram that “All identified close contacts are under medical supervision. At present, they show no signs of the disease, and their laboratory test results are negative.”

Now you'd think that after the Covid epidemic, and the strong and persistent, but unproven allegations that it was lax controls at a Chinese laboratory in Wuhan, that inflicted the misery and deaths on the world that the virus did, that even reckless regimes such as Russia and China, would either stop creating these things, or at least double down on bio-security. 

But no, what appears from the reports to be that a possibly manufactured "unknown" plague, may somehow have been allowed to escape a Russian laboratory via an infected female lab worker. However Rospotrebnadzor, the Russian infectious disease control agency has reported that “The sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov is stable.” However, Chinese authorities said similar things during the early days of Covid, and indeed reprimanded Dr. Li Wenliang who first reported the outbreak in December 2019 (he died of Covid and was posthumously awarded China's highest civilian medal), so can anyone trust this official announcement? 

Certainly not the inhabitants of Shelekhov where the 'official' news reports where its reported that the lab worker’s illness and death was “unrelated to her professional activities,” are competing with (and losing in some cases to) rumours that it was, spreading faster online.

Apparently the US is sufficiently alarmed by these "rumours and conflicting reports circulating," that the State Department has confirmed that its monitoring these reports of a suspected fatal pneumonic plague death in Russia, and is urging Moscow to share accurate information quickly. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has weighed in, and Trump has suggested that he'll bring the matter up with Putin in a scheduled talk, and offer to help. The World Health Organisation (WHO) Chief has also asked Russia to give details as “timely, complete and transparent information sharing under the international regulations is essential to clarify conflicting reports and enable an accurate assessment of potential public health risks.” But given the lack of official transparency in Russia and other such regimes, you have to ask, how long before we all risk following follow the researchers sad demise? 

Of course the Russians haven't really been forthcoming about the lab technical / researcher death at the plague research institute. So that's allowed the extreme theories to start to flower ... led by a Fox News report, where speculation that an unnamed Russian defector, years ago claimed that research into an antibiotic immune version of the black death had been worked on secretly in the 1990's. So, the article suggests that it could be that which killed the poor woman, and that's why Russia isn't being forthcoming about her death.

These days a lack of transparency can allow these weird ideas to flourish. And of course blow-back like this will enter Russian public discourse as well, the longer the death cause remains unexplained. To say this is an evolving story is hardly an exaggeration. Apparently, Russia's tight lipped approach to this incident, has also spooked some of the former satellite states of the Soviet Union, and the four 'stans,' Tajkstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan have started doing border checks on people entering from Russia. All Russia effectively says is stay calm and carry on, nothing to see here, as Rospotrebnadzor said its pretty well finished with the set of preventative measures in Russia’s Irkutsk region, and that the medical monitoring has been completed for “over 90%” of contacts of the deceased worker, and no dangerous pathogens have been found. 

However, not to end this post on a negative, it should be noted that naturally occurring cases of pneumonic plague develop in many parts of the world, and can be treated with common antibiotics, particularly if treatment begins early, so only if the "unknown etiology,” of the pneumonic plague strain proves resistant to existing antibiotics, would we have real cause to worry .... now if only Russia would share the cause of Ms Shipilov's sad demise, we would all know if there was any cause for worry.