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submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Darya Shipilova is said to have been exposed to the pathogen while working at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Siberia

Hundreds of people have been placed into quarantine in Siberia after a laboratory worker died of suspected plague, according to reports.

Darya Shipilova, an employee at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, was exposed to the bacteria after she accidentally broke a test tube containing the pathogen while she was collecting samples, the Kyiv Independent reported.

She was hospitalised on 29 September with severe pneumonia of "unknown origin” and placed on a ventilator, but died shortly after.

Independent Russian outlet Lyudi Baikal reported that several hospitals in the city of Irkutsk had closed for a three-week quarantine.

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[-] Noblesavage@lemmy.world 76 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

I'm guessing they made an extra feisty version. Otherwise, break out the antibiotics, no need for death or massive quarantine..

[-] takeda@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 46 minutes ago* (last edited 44 minutes ago)

And for people worried about it, the World Health Organization (WHO) says that "today it can be easily treated with antibiotics and the use of standard preventative measures."

Not if it is developed by Russians to be antibiotic resistant.

Why would they have a lab working on it if it was easily treatable by antibiotic? Why the worker died anyway and they introduced a quarantine?

[-] timbuck2themoon@sh.itjust.works 5 points 2 hours ago

No idea if true but people on reddit said it had to be treated within 24 hours of symptom onset.

A ton of people would easily try to wait it out and be too late to get meds.

[-] jumping_redditor@sh.itjust.works -1 points 1 hour ago

think about what it would do to housing prices to have a large number of nice houses be suddenly available

[-] reksas@sopuli.xyz 8 points 6 hours ago

such fun times to be without spleen

[-] datendefekt@feddit.org 28 points 9 hours ago

So if it’s easily treated, and I’m sure they knew this at the lab, why did the worker die?

[-] PushButton@lemmy.world 19 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

In a country where people suicide by 12 knife stabs in the back and where people randomly fall from an inoperable 5th floor window...

I would just say: because Russia?

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 39 points 8 hours ago

Many possible explanations.

  • Russia lying again to justify death of someome they wanted dead
  • Russia lying again to try to scare the world into thinking they have some unknown bioweapon
  • Russia lying again that this whole ordeal happened to make the world think they have scientists working on bioweapons
[-] mobyduck648@lemmy.world 19 points 7 hours ago

Let's not discount the possibility of creaking Soviet-era equipment that should have been replaced decades ago but the money was non-existent/spent corruptly/not enough to touch the sides of the neglect/delete as appropriate.

We're talking about the country which operates the poor Kuznetsov which has been begging for death for many years.

[-] derpgon@programming.dev 2 points 3 hours ago

Hopefully Ukraine will grant it mercy and eternal rest 🙏

[-] diaphragmwp@discuss.tchncs.de 8 points 6 hours ago

Nah, they made their own equipment. That's worse.

[-] Taleya@aussie.zone 3 points 6 hours ago
  • Russia doing stupid fucking shit. Again.
[-] treesapx@lemmy.world 13 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

People die of treatable diseases.

[-] WraithGear@lemmy.world 6 points 5 hours ago

that kinda undercuts the whole “don’t worry, the black death can be cured now a days” argument

[-] MalReynolds@slrpnk.net 35 points 9 hours ago

Assuming of course, to be pessimistic, it hasn't been weaponized. Siberian Anti-Plague Research facility doesn't fill me with confidence, and you'd expect the hospital to have tried antibiotics, granted they may have been too late or used the wrong ones.

[-] bedwyr@piefed.ca 3 points 1 hour ago

Someone else wrote it's a strain that specializes in colonizing the lungs and has to be treated within 24 hours or septicimia. Also that front line antibiotics might not work on it but others will.

[-] mobyduck648@lemmy.world 25 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

My 'favourite' fact about Soviet-era bioweapons is that they had a facility on an island in the Aral Sea. Said sea vanished from existence after the Kremlin redirected all the rivers which fed it in an effort to grow cotton in the desert, causing it to shrink to some 10% or less of its original volume. As well as destroying the livelihoods of the fishermen of Aralsk in Kazakhstan, it also made the island full of fucking anthrax among other things part of the mainland.

I'll say this for the Soviets, they didn't do environmental disasters by halves. Also as a Briton we had our own anthrax island in Scotland from the war that was only decontaminated in the '90s.

[-] domusaltera@piefed.social 17 points 10 hours ago

Why is this comment buried here? It's literally the solution! Do people love the thrill of panicking? Internet, you so silly sometimes...

[-] jnod4@lemmy.ca 8 points 7 hours ago

Chat how easy it is to brew an antibiotic resistant strain of plague considered we created some resistant diseases fully by accident?

[-] Aatube@lemmy.dbzer0.com 19 points 9 hours ago

renowned current health guidance has a high likelihood of failing to apply to new genetically-modified variants

(if that is the case)

this post was submitted on 04 Oct 2026
538 points (99.3% liked)

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