Last Friday, a woman died of pneumonia in Siberia. It is not known how he got neoemia.
It is believed that this pneumonia was caused by plague. Russian media reported that about 200 people have been kept in isolation. Officials have dismissed concerns about plague, but online speculation and rumors are rife.
A 28-year-old woman named Daria Shipilova worked in an anti-plague institute located in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.
According to unconfirmed reports, the woman developed pneumonia-like symptoms either after breaking a test tube containing plague bacteria or after traveling to the Buryatia region bordering Mongolia.
Plague is a local disease among wild animals in this area.
Till date, the official cause of Shipilova's death has not been known and investigation is underway in the lab. But one thing is clear.
Experts say that this case is not likely to spread the epidemic globally.
Know why this is so.
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Plague is caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis. Medically there are three forms: bubonic plague, pneumonic plague and septicemic plague.
Bubonic plague is the most common type and is spread through the bites of infected fleas. Once entering the body, the bacteria reaches the lymph nodes where it causes painful lesions called 'buboes' in the groin, neck and armpits.
It is rare for bubonic plague to spread from person to person, but the bacteria can spread through the blood to cause septicemic plague or spread to the lungs to cause pneumonic plague.
Unlike other forms of plague, pneumonic plague can spread from person to person through tiny droplets expelled into the air when someone coughs or sneezes. Pneumonic plague is usually fatal.
If it is not treated quickly, the time from exposure to infection to onset of symptoms may be only 24 hours.
The 'Black Death', an epidemic caused by plague and pneumonia, killed more than 25 million people in Europe in the 14th century, wiping out one-third to two-thirds of the population. This epidemic was made possible by newly opened trade routes and the importation of goods such as grain and flour through ships.
However, current times are much less favorable for the spread of plague.
The most important thing is that pneumonia caused by Yersinia pestis is fatal if not treated. But in the present era it can be cured with widely available antibiotics.
"We have two treatments for bubonic plague that work very well," says Piero Oliaro, a professor of poverty-related infectious diseases at the University of Oxford.
In 2025, Olierou and his colleagues published the first trial for the treatment of bubonic plague in Madagascar.
It showed that two antibiotics – oral ciprofloxacin and an injectable aminoglycoside – were 91% and 92% effective, respectively, in treating bubonic plague.
There were also some cases in which plague turned into pneumonia. But even in these cases, with immediate treatment, 85% people recovered and survived.
Another reason why the probability of a plague epidemic is very low is that unlike the COVID-19 virus, pneumonic plague spreads only after the onset of symptoms.
This usually happens within 24 hours. Its symptoms are severe and obvious. This means that any new cases can be quickly identified, isolated and treated before the infection spreads.
"This is not something we can ignore," says Xania Stamataki, associate professor of viral immunology at the University of Birmingham.
According to the World Health Organization, all the people who came in contact with the patients have been identified and are being monitored. At present no one is showing any symptoms of the disease.
The move is in line with advice from the US Centers for Disease Control, which recommends identifying at-risk individuals so they can be given antibiotics after monitoring and testing.
World Health Organization spokesperson Christian Lindmayer announced the organization's 'initial risk assessment' on Tuesday.
He told journalists that "the risk for Irkutsk is medium to low, the risk for the entire Russian Federation is low and the risk for the WHO European Region is very low."
In general, outbreaks of infection in labs are an extremely rare occurrence, as strict protocols are usually in place to prevent accidental contact.
"These are very specialized laboratories, with many layers of security," says Stamataki.
For example, Stamataki points out that researchers wear full personal protective equipment (PPE). Samples are handled only inside the biosafety cabinet.
These safety cabinets are subject to 'negative air pressure', meaning the air flows inwards and away from the user.
"If a tube breaks, it will break inside the cabinet and the user will be safe," she says.
Stamataki explains that even when transporting the tube, it is kept in a secondary containment vessel.
She further says that technicians are also given intensive training before working in such laboratories.
One of the main reasons for the rapid spread of plague in the 14th century was the circumstances of that time.
The streets were littered with garbage and food scraps, making them ideal nesting sites for black rats that carried disease-carrying fleas.
People lived very close to each other, and traders traveled in narrow ships for months at a time. Such conditions are no longer present in most parts of the world.
Still, it's important to point out that plague is not just a historical disease. Plague is present in rat populations in Africa, Asia, South America and even the United States.
Although the likelihood of a plague outbreak actually spreading globally is low, that does not mean we should not invest in plague treatment and prevention.
"Globally, it may not affect many people, but it still causes suffering. It is an important disease, so we should not forget that a disease like plague exists," says Oliero.
We used AI to translate this article, which was originally written in English. A BBC journalist checked this translation before publication. Learn more about how we're using AI.
