The Russian authorities have now clarified the circumstances of the incident: according to Russian information, the death of a laboratory employee was not due to infection with the plague bacteria. The 28-year-old young woman died of "pneumonia of unknown cause," according to what the Russian news agency "Interfax" reported from the Russian body responsible for public health, epidemiological control and protection of consumer rights in Russia, "Rospotrebnadsor."
The authority said that laboratory tests did not reveal any microorganisms “related to her professional activity” in the deceased’s samples. Thus, this information contradicts the information that was circulated earlier.
Local media had previously reported that an employee working at an institute to combat plague diseases had dropped an experimental tube. Shortly after, she died last Friday in the regional hospital in the city of Shelikhov near Irkutsk in Siberia.
The United States is monitoring the situation closely
Despite Russian statements, the United States is monitoring the situation with great interest. The American news site Axios quoted a Trump administration employee as saying that they are aware of the situation and that they are “monitoring the outbreak of the disease and studying available options.” Axios also reported that about 200 people were subject to surveillance after they had been in contact with the deceased.
According to official Russian sources, quarantine was imposed on two hospitals and a children's clinic. According to local reports, the institute’s employees were subjected to quarantine in their workplaces. No other cases of infection were recorded.
However, doubt remains regarding Russia's information policy. "I wouldn't be surprised if a catastrophe happened there now either in terms of the spread of the disease or quarantine measures," one user wrote on DW's Russian-language channel on social media. It remains to be seen how the situation will actually develop.
The most aggressive form of plague
Pneumonic plague is one of three forms of plague, along with bubonic plague and plague septicemia, which are all caused by the same bacteria, known as Yersinia pestis, that are commonly found in small mammals, such as rodents, and in fleas.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes pneumonic plague as the most dangerous form of plague. Its incubation period may reach 24 hours, and it is the only form capable of being easily transmitted from one person to another. This occurs mainly through respiratory droplets released when an infected person coughs, which makes him capable of causing serious epidemic outbreaks. Symptoms appear quickly and include high fever, headache, and general weakness, followed by rapidly worsening pneumonia, accompanied by shortness of breath, chest pain, and a cough that is often accompanied by blood.
A person can become infected with pneumonic plague by directly inhaling the bacteria, or the disease develops when another form of plague, often bubonic plague, spreads to the lungs.
Bubonic plague, plague septicemia, and pneumonic plague
The difference lies in where the infection settles within the body. This determines how the disease spreads and how dangerous it is. Bubonic plague is the most common form and is what comes to most people's minds when mentioning the medieval "Black Death," which killed about 25 million people.
It is usually caused by a flea bite. The bacteria travel to the nearest lymph node where they swell to form a painful swelling or 'blister'. If pustular plague is not treated, the bacteria can spread further in the body. When it reaches the bloodstream, the disease develops into plague septicemia.
This can cause bleeding under the skin and organ failure. If the bacteria reach the lungs, they lead to pneumonic plague, which is the form that can be transmitted from one person to another through the air. Both plague septicemia and pneumonic plague can develop directly without a prior appearance.
According to the World Health Organization, rinderpest results in the death of between 30 and 60 percent of patients if treatment is not received. As for septicemic plague and pneumonic plague, it always leads to death if treatment is not received.
Treatment of pneumonic plague
Pneumonic plague is curable but only if treatment is started quickly. The World Health Organization warns that it may lead to death within 18 to 24 hours of the first symptoms if it is not treated. Common antibiotics can treat the infection and cure rates are high if patients are treated within approximately one day of the onset of illness.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, including those in the United States, advise doctors not to wait for laboratory confirmation, but rather to begin giving antibiotics as soon as plague is suspected. The medications used are commercially available and widely used antibiotics, and patients usually require treatment for up to two weeks. To prevent the spread of infection, patients are isolated. According to the World Health Organization, wearing masks also helps.
Prophylactic antibiotics and isolation
People who have been in close contact with a patient are also treated even if they do not show any symptoms. Both the World Health Organization and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that people who have been in close contact with people infected with pneumonic plague undergo preventive antibiotic treatment for seven days.
According to the Robert Koch Institute, the plague still exists in some countries in Africa, the Americas, and Asia. In Germany, there is no. The risk of someone infected with plague germs entering Germany is considered small. There are also effective measures to prevent and limit the spread of the disease.
