FEARS Russia’s suspected plague outbreak could “quickly spread” beyond its borders are mounting as experts warn the UK should be on high alert. 



Lab worker Daria Shipilova, 28, mysteriously died after falling desperately ill in Shelekhov, Siberia from suspected pneumonic plague. 


Hazmat suit-wearing officials have been spotted in Russia

Daria Shipilova, 28, died from a suspected plague outbreak Credit: East2West


Russian media reports claim Daria smashed a glass test tube containing deadly bacteria while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute.



Russian officials deny any such accident occurred and insist she instead developed “pneumonia of unknown aetiology”.


			
							
											
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But the huge containment operation and hospital lockdown in the days after her death has spread alarm far beyond Siberia.



Dr Andrew Weber, who has been inside anti-plague laboratories across the former Soviet Union, said UK health chiefs should consider screening passengers while the Kremlin remains tight-lipped over exactly what killed Daria. 
		

		


Dr Weber, who worked in the US Department of Defence, told The Sun: “If I were a public health authority in London, I would be monitoring flights and passengers coming from the region and screening them at the airport.”



Kyrgyzstan – a neighbouring country – has tightened sanitary controls at its border checkpoints following reports of the suspected plague case.



Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have also announced preventive measures, while Mongolia already has heightened precautions in its regions bordering Russia.



The White House is watching developments too, saying the Trump administration “is aware of the outbreak, is monitoring it, and is evaluating possible courses of action.”

		
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US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said Washington is closely monitoring the outbreak Credit: Reuters

Central Asian states Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan tighten health checks at borders Credit: East2West


Quarantine measures in place in several hospitals in eastern Russia amid uncertainty over death of Darya Shipilova



The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio said: “We’re watching and monitoring it closely.” 



Weber warned the stakes would be far higher if Daria was infected with pneumonic plague – the dangerous lung form of the disease which can pass between humans.



“If it’s pneumonic plague, which spreads through the air, it could spread pretty quickly,” he said.



The highly dangerous lung form of the disease is caused by the same bacterium responsible for the medieval Black Death.



Irkutsk’s remote Siberian location and restrictions on flights out of Russia could help contain any potential outbreak.



But Weber warned there is another route stretching thousands of miles across the country.



The Trans-Siberian Railway passes directly through Irkutsk – potentially allowing an infected traveller to reach a major city before boarding an international flight.


Workers in full protective gear have been filmed by residents in Russia’s Irkutsk region Credit: East2West

Russia’s Rospotrebnadzor health watchdog has also denied there was any lab accident Credit: East2West


The precautions inside Russia have nevertheless raised questions over why authorities have imposed such a severe clampdown while insisting there is no plague outbreak.



Reports say 189 people have been isolated or placed under observation – 114 in one hospital, 63 in another and 12 at the anti-plague institute.



More than 60 of Daria’s colleagues have also reportedly been locked inside the institute for days.



Some were allegedly forced to sleep on floors and chairs despite none initially testing positive for plague.



At least five hospitals have reportedly faced restrictions, while public events and university classes have been disrupted.



Workers at the giant Irkutsk Aluminium Plant in Shelekhov have also been ordered to wear masks.



Three-week restrictions were reportedly imposed at a children’s hospital and at least one maternity hospital.



One patient at City Clinical Hospital No.1 said: “We are under full quarantine. None of our relatives are being allowed in. We are not being allowed out.”


Fears are mounting that Russian health authorities are covering up the case Credit: East2West

The scientist fell ill while on an expedition on the border between Russia and Mongolia Credit: East2West


Weber said Russia has a long history of using drastic quarantine measures to crush potential outbreaks.



“In typical Soviet-style fashion, they are very good at quarantine,” he said.



“They isolate people in hospitals to make sure whatever caused her death doesn’t spread further.”



He added: “Because they are an authoritarian state, their ability to quarantine is much better than in the democratic world.”



But Russia’s health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor insists extensive testing found no evidence Shipilova was infected by microorganisms linked to her work.



A biological-safety commission also claimed it found no accident involving dangerous pathogens at the institute.



Officials insist the epidemiological situation remains “stable”.



Despite those assurances, almost 200 people who had contact with Shipilova have been placed under observation.



The Kremlin’s handling of the mystery has only fuelled suspicion among locals.



Weber said: “The lack of information is very disturbing. 



He added: “Putin is a habitual liar and they cover up things that make them look bad. So it wouldn’t surprise me that this is sort of normal procedure…”



Simon Clarke, head of biomedical studies at Reading University told The Sun: “They cover it up because they’re embarrassed. 



“It looks bad, it looks amateur, not something that happens in a properly developed nation.” 



Russia’s chief state sanitary doctor Anna Popova flew some 2,600 miles from Moscow to Irkutsk to oversee the response to a “particularly dangerous infection”.



Yet she has not publicly explained the scale of the emergency measures.



Buryatia governor Alexey Tsydenov initially referred to Shipilova as “the woman who died from plague” before changing his wording to say she “may have died from plague”.



Officials in nearby Baikalsk also briefly warned residents against travelling to Shelekhov following unofficial information about a plague case.



The warning was later deleted.



One worried local said: “The more they reassure us, the more frightening it gets.”



Another said: “They’re lying just for the sake of lying, automatically. It’s been like that for a long time.”



A woman named Inna added: “There’s a quarantine, but there’s no disease.”



But Weber said the mystery is even more concerning because of the Soviet anti-plague network’s dark history.



He said scientists collected dangerous pathogens from rodents and fleas before working to make some strains more resistant to antibiotics and more virulent.



Weber said: “They did a lot of work collecting strains from rodents and fleas, enhancing antibiotic resistance, selecting strains resistant to multiple antibiotics, and enhancing virulence.



“Those most dangerous strains were fed into the Soviet biological weapons program.”



He further alleged Russia has continued secret biological weapons research under Putin.



Weber said Western experts once enjoyed far greater access to Russia’s biological facilities before the shutters came down.



“We had very good transparency into these laboratories in the 1990s and early 2000s until Putin closed Russia to us,” he said.



“Now it’s really very opaque as to what’s going on.”

	

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