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.

  • NoxAstrum@lemmy.ca
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    11 hours ago

    Awesome. My question is: does Anti-Plague Research Institute actually mean Biological Weapon Research Institute?

    • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      My guess is yes, since she died. I’m pretty sure that it’s pretty trivial to cure plague these days, just using antibiotics. Since she died, and there’s a big quarantine, that suggests the possibility that they’ve been fucking with the bacteria and made it extra spicy. It’s so obvious that governments will do this - just because - that Stephen King wrote the stand back in the 70s.

      • Nalivai@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        It could be antibiotics-resistant strain, and that can occur naturally pretty easily. Russian healthcare system likes to prescribe antibiotics for anything and everything, so probability of her being on some prolonged course that allowed for a super-plague to develop naturally is not zero.
        Which, frankly speaking, will be so much worse. At this point, I hope it’s a bioweapon.

        • leftzero@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          10 hours ago

          Russian healthcare system likes to prescribe antibiotics for anything and everything

          Weren’t they pioneering phage research back in the old USSR days…?

      • Aqarius@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        Depends on the form. Even regular Yersinia can be very, very bad if it gets into the wrong organs.

    • Test_Tickles@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Does it really matter what the label is on the name of the institute that wipes out humanity? If the place has deadly viruses with the only protection stopping it from killing people that work there is a thin glass test tube, then it doesn’t really matter what the intent was, the place was always designed to wipe out humanity.

      • SippyCup@lemmy.world
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        10 hours ago

        It doesn’t, but I’m willing to bet a dollar that the name on the institute that wipes out humanity will be a reference to the Lord of the Rings, and it will be one of the evil things.