Moscow has denied rumors about the introduction of an emergency sanitary regime due to the plague

Journalist Irina Mishina reported on Telegram that medical institutions in Moscow allegedly disseminated information about preparations for emergency measures after an outbreak of plague in the Irkutsk region.

According to her, after the death of a 27-year-old patient in the Irkutsk region, almost 200 contact persons were placed under medical observation, some of whom are in hospitals. During the time between infection, the onset of symptoms and hospitalization, people from the circle of contacts could use public transport, so “the danger went beyond the region.” In this regard, according to the TV presenter, the Moscow administration was instructed to prepare for an emergency sanitary regime.

This is fake. The official introduction of an emergency sanitary regime or plague quarantine in Moscow has not yet been announced. This data is not available either on the website of Rospotrebnadzor, or on the website of the capital’s mayor, or the Department of Health.

The reason for the rumors was the situation in the Irkutsk region. On October 2, information spread in the media that an employee of the anti-plague institute in the Irkutsk region contracted pneumonic plague and did not survive. Before her illness, the woman went on a business trip to Buryatia. A natural focus of infection was previously discovered in the republic near the Mongolian border, where ground squirrels became its main carriers.

There were also rumors that the scientist could have accidentally broken a test tube with a dangerous bacterium in the laboratory when she was collecting biomaterial for diagnostics.

At the same time, Rospotrebnadzor did not detect any accidents at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute. “Based on the results of the work of the commission to monitor compliance with biological safety requirements at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East, no emergency situations were identified when working with pathogenic microorganisms,” the department said.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov called for listening to official statements on the situation in the Irkutsk region and not trusting other sources.

“In this case, the lead agency that is competent in this area is Rospotrebnadzor. And it is precisely the official statements of Rospotrebnadzor that we need to rely on, without listening to various rumors, different arguments, and so on,” Peskov noted and emphasized that Rospotrebnadzor brings together high professionals.

In turn, RAS academician and epidemiologist Gennady Onishchenko also ruled out the spread of the plague in Russia. He explained that the incubation period of the dangerous disease is seven days. This is a bacterial infection that is poorly transmitted and can be treated with antibiotics, the academician noted. “Although the clinic of the plague is not so noticeable, the most important thing is that snow has already fallen in Buryatia. The patient returned from Buryatia, where the natural focus of the plague is rodents and fleas. All these natural outbreaks are under constant control, but all the plague carriers are already asleep. In any case, we know this infection well, we know how to treat it, and it will definitely not spread,” he said.

Molecular biologist, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Pyotr Chumakov also pointed out that there cannot be failures in the biological safety system in Russia. “It is obvious that a failure occurred, it is necessary to investigate so that such cases do not happen again. Of course, anything can happen, but our biological safety system was developed a long time ago and was carefully developed, and there were virtually no failures,” he noted.

The governor of the Irkutsk region, Igor Kobzev, said that the official cause of the girl’s death was pneumonia of unknown etiology. According to him, specialists conducted extensive laboratory tests. According to the test results, no microorganisms related to her professional activities were found in the girl’s biomaterials.

“It is important that over the past few days, no new cases of visits to doctors from employees of the anti-plague institute have been identified,” he added, pointing out that now the sanitary and epidemiological situation in Irkutsk and the Shelekhovsky district is stable.

The same data was published by Rospotrebnadzor.

It is noteworthy that unreliable data about Moscow’s preparations for the introduction of an emergency sanitary regime did not spread in the Russian media.