What has happened?
On the night of October 2, 28-year-old laboratory technician Darya Shipilova died in a hospital outside Irkutsk in Russia. According to the authorities, the cause of death was "pneumonia of unknown origin". Information quickly spread that she had been infected with pneumonic plague. The authorities cordoned off the hospital where Sjipilova had been admitted and quarantined everyone she had been in contact with. Despite the fact that pneumonic plague is a very dangerous disease, information from Russian authorities has been scarce, which has resulted in demands from the WHO, the US and the EU to know more, so far to no avail.
What is pneumonic plague?
Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. The plague bacterium can cause three varieties of disease: bubonic plague, bubonic plague and pneumonic plague. The latter occurs if the bacterium infects the lungs. The result is then a serious pneumonia with a very rapid course with high fever, chills and cough as a result. Untreated, pneumonic plague leads to death in almost 100 percent of cases. The disease can be treated with antibiotics. But in that case, it must be introduced early in the course of the disease, no later than within 24 hours of the onset of symptoms.
Is pneumonic plague contagious?
Yes, pneumonic plague is the only one of the different plague variants that is contagious between people. But in order to become infected, relatively close contact between people is required. Pneumonic plague is spread through droplet infection, mainly if a sick person coughs or sneezes near someone else. It is therefore not airborne in the same way as, for example, measles, which is a much more contagious disease.
Is there a risk that there will be a large spread of infection?
The probability that the events in Russia lead to a widespread spread of infection is very small. There is no vaccine against pneumonic plague, but what is usually done in cases like these is to give suspected infected people antibiotics for preventive purposes. The hospitals also have clear procedures for how they should take care of people who are believed to be infected with dangerous and contagious diseases.
Why are plague bacteria found in laboratories in Russia?
That laboratories house potentially dangerous infectious agents for research purposes is nothing strange in itself. It occurs around the world, including Sweden. In the Public Health Agency's premises in Solna, there is the Nordic region's only safety laboratory with the highest level of protection, which is used for diagnostics, analysis and research on dangerous and highly pathogenic infectious agents. The fact that the plague bacterium appears in laboratories in Russia is also not so strange, since this bacterium circulates among rodents in parts of Russia, Mongolia and China. Russia has long had a large network of laboratories to deal with plague and other infections.
