Russia denies second case of infectious disease - as WHO seeks to verify reports of new 'plague' contact

Russia has denied that a second case of an infectious disease has emerged where a woman who worked at a laboratory died last week.

Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died on 2 October from what the Russian authorities said was caused by pneumonia.

However, it's come under pressure from the US and the World Health Organization (WHO) to explicitly rule out that she had the plague.

In a statement, after social media reports emerged of a second case of a disease in a person who had come into contact with a laboratory worker with pneumonia, Russia's consumer welfare ministry denied any new incident.

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It said the information was "fake" and that no such case had been reported, according to Russian state news agency TASS.

It comes after the ministry said that it had completed checks on all the ​contacts of the dead woman, adding: "No health issues related to an infectious disease were detected, and the results ​of nearly 5,000 laboratory tests showed no ⁠dangerous pathogenic microorganisms."

Despite this, the WHO said on Wednesday it ​had asked Russia to verify "media reports of a ⁠second employee with pneumonia of undetermined cause".

The WHO has said the pneumonic form of plague is especially contagious and "can trigger severe epidemics through person-to-person transmission via respiratory particles".

According to the WHO, it is the most virulent form of plague and the incubation period can be as short as 24 hours.

Symptoms appear quickly - sometimes less than 24 hours after infection. They include severe respiratory symptoms such as shortness of breath and coughing, often with blood-tainted mucus.

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The WHO said pneumonic plague can be fatal within 18 to 24 hours of disease onset if left untreated.

From 2019 to 2025, 10 countries reported more than 3,800 suspected human plague cases to the WHO, the agency said last week.

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