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.
that’s some vintage russian behavior.
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.
Strange for someone working with that specific pathogen to not be innoculated prophylactically.
Indeed. This is exactly the kind of high-risk environment for which people are typically vaccinated
Yeah, people seem to think the plague is extinct? There are yearly cases of plague in nearby Mongolia for example. It’s also not usually as easy to spread compared to viruses like influensa. It’s still a scary thing to think about, but nothing for us to worry about really…
yersinia pestis is a zoonotic disease, it never went away. its only the plague flea+black rat that was the problem in medieval times, i think it was combination of stray dogs+cats that helped it. its still in wild rodent populations.
This would be the most stupid and inefficient biological weapon. Again, we have the vaccine AND the cure.
Erm, Actually. It’s obvious they’re still researching the Suppression and Sympto-Statis gene tech so they can sneak the plague into other countries without panic.
You casuals wouldn’t understand. 😏 /s
Maybe they’re making a potent cross-species variant by weaponising good ol’ Russian boreal swamp debauchery.
looking at how people react in regards of vaccines, masks, and medical misinformation, I think even a common cold can be a successful bio-weapon
I mean unless they are somehow trying to develop an antibiotic and vaccine resistant strain of the plague? If it were the case then it is almost 100% a bioweapon research at best under the guise of bioweapon security. And I don’t know if this person is a bioweapon researcher or a public health researcher.
I mean unless they are somehow trying to develop an antibiotic and vaccine resistant strain of the plague?
That would be unwise as you’d ideally want to have an antibiotic available for your own troops in a war. We also pretty much know about all of Russia’s bioweapon work after the cold war ended, there’s even an Anthrax island site they abandoned.
Fortunately bio weapon research is even more niche today than it was at the height of cold war tensions and all nations have cut back and destroyed big chunks of their stockpiles.
Also keep in mind that things like leprosy still occur in the USA (Florida is even seeing a small increase in cases) so it’s not necessarily that uncommon or a cause for concern. Things like the plague, leprosy and even strep throat (known as scarlet fever back when it regularly killed kids and routinely caused deafness in survivors) and easier to cure/treat thanks to modern medicine. The hygienic practices we have these days also help keep these things from breaking out like they used to.
my fear is dumber than that, people just wont wanna take the vaccine and antibiotic and there will be this weird disease loving faction that does great damage to the greater society.
Lol another twist on bioterrorism
Yes it is much cheaper and easier to convince people to not use vaccines and other proven medical interventions than it would be to create a novel virus. Look at the idiotic life threatening things people are willing to do to follow a TicToc trend or Insta. Not to mention all the idiocy they will follow due to AI. Those are the ‘deadly viruses’ people should be fearing.
I am pinning my hopes on a random Lemmy commentor.
I hate this timeline.
This random commentor happens to be a Russian microbiologist, so you’re in pretty safe hands.
(No, I do not develop biological weapons, nor am I aware of any such facilities)
So if Putin calls it the Anti-Plague Research Institute we can be pretty sure they’re actively creating plagues right?
Please not again
Wow. What’s Putin doing, manufacturing plague to deal with Ukraine?
There are very legitimate reasons to be doing research like this. Every developed nation pretty much has labs like this.
However, that isn’t to say none of these are attempting to make weapons. The issue is research for a weapon like this looks pretty much identical to the good kind of research. The only way to know the difference would be getting your hands on documents saying it’s for a weapon.
Sure, but, Putin.
what kind of scientist accidently breaks open a test tube containing plague
I’ve lost count of the glassware I’ve broken. Now none of them were plague cultures, but I wouldn’t get less clumsy just because they were.
Also this sort of thing becomes more likely when we’re overworked and tired. So if you don’t want another plague, it might be a good idea to make sure your local scientists have reasonable workloads.
There are a lot of labs who work on all kinds of diseases. They keep them in test tubes sometimes. Accidents happen. The big issue is there should be protocols that prevent that accident from spreading, which there apparently weren’t in this case. This could be for a ton of reasons, like the person not following protocol, or issues caused by a lack of funding due to the war. I don’t think we can really speculate on why this happened, just that it did, and the fact that they were doing this work isn’t that strange.
Never underestimate the human capacity for failure.
Always has been.
The USSR from the Stalin era onwards had world-leading biological and chemical weapons programmes, largely due to having plenty of test subjects in the gulag system.
Everybody get ready to add a “Russian Plague” box to your bingo card.
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.
I’m hoping there is one, simply because the same thing will happen again.
The Left will follow instructions and survive, the Right will die in numbers large enough to affect elections
Totally what happened. We now have a leftist president and congress. The right wing is all dead.
Yeah, and those of us who are on the left and immunocompromised are fucked. I understand where you’re coming from, but this is a bad take.
No matter if instructions are followed, there is always risk, especially to vulnerable people.
I mean… Aren’t the conservatives going to do that anyway?
It’s way cheaper this way
The number of people possible will be higher
I’d like to know what the “live biological samples” were.
Earlier articles said it was Pneumonic Plague. Maybe the independent is taking a step back from that since there’s nothing definitive, but it doesn’t really matter right now (note that this position is different from saying it doesn’t matter at all, or saying to not keep your ear to the ground).
If it’s the plague then it’s treatable with antibiotics, but not the first line ones, and it has to be treated quickly. As we all should know by now if it’s a virus you can only treat the symptoms until there’s a vaccine.
the pneumonic plague is more lethal than the bubonic, the classic one in medieval times, eventhough its the same bacteria. you need to be treated within 1day, or it becomes septicemic.
What I’ve heard was Y. Pestis, Yersinia Pestis.
Well, this time around, MAGA conservatives have proven that they can indeed wear masks so maybe… naw. They’ll come up with some reason not to again.
They’ll mostly be successful in killing their own voter base, which would ultimately turn out positively?
I think that it’d be pretty hard to describe a plague pandemic in any terms approaching “positively”.
The black death caused the renaissance¹, and the end of feudalism in Europe. I’d say that was pretty positive (eventually), despite the overall tragedy.
- By leaving enough job openings in the cities for the serfs to escape their lords’ fields to work for themselves, with much higher wages due to less supply and increased demand, and severely reducing the lords’ power in the process.
IDK an irradication of boomers, antivaxers, and conservatives would be approaching a positive outcome.
(A reminder that wishing your political enemies die by their own hand is… not great.)
I thought you folks loved democracy.
Isn’t the saying “hate the game, love the players”.
and Democrats! that would be great
It’s like eradication but also irradiation for some reason.
So just fuck the disabled and immunocompromised?
And babies!
The Epstein class is way ahead of you on that front
“Some of you may die, but it’s a sacrifice I am willing to make”
There is a way to rationalize all this but it’s obviously extremely cruel.
Or it disproportionately kills the most economically oppressed like always, spreads paranoia and destroys community trust, leading to another right wing surge.
Sure. Let’s do this.
Anti-Plague Research Institute
I bet I know what this mystery virus is
It’s like bills with titles that say the opposite of what they achieve.
Should be Pro-Plague Research Institute
It’s said to be yersina pestis there, the black death, but an airborne strain that causes septicimia within a day if not treated.
I would imagine that is from gain of function research they’ve been doing.
The articles says it’s not a virus:
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.
Why does it say virus in the title?
Welp… here it comes.
I gotta say the moment the RUSSIANS start taking things like this seriously is usually quite late. So uuuuuuuh
Ooo we haven’t had a pandemic in 6.5 years.
Uh, it hasn’t stopped.
We have dozens of ongoing pandemics. We haven’t had a new and notable pandemic in 6.5 years. Just the same flus and colds and uhhh measles? And whooping cough and-
Those are all endemic at this point.
Pandemic is characterized by fast, unpredictable spread across many international regions.
Hey, bud, what do you think that makes Covid?
Hey, bud.
I’d say that makes it endemic. It has been for a couple of years now.
T-Virus time?
I look forward to conservatives fighting for their right to get bitten by zombies.
Well looking through the list of symptoms, it makes you murderous and violent, you never seem to die a natural death, and all you want to do in life is destroy the brains of the woke.
…I guess they’ve already got it.
NGL the news about this one is stressing me the fuck out for some reason. Maybe because its Russia and it came from a lab, so I’m immediately dooming this is like an antibiotic superweapon or some shit. I don’t know, that’s just needless anxiety right?
But also I can’t trust the US government to take care of people and I can’t trust the Russian government to tell the truth about this so I feel like shit is gonna hit the fan.
It’s a bacteria and it’s known.
they had accidental releases, or infections from BSL-4 labs before. anthrax, other plague, read up on it, its quite interesting.
Surprisingly it’s actually mildly comforting to know we’ve had worse accidental releases lmao.
Yeah but the important part is it hasn’t led to the end of the world yet!
