10/05/2026
Official statements are conflicting:
The head of neighboring Buryatia, Alexei Tsydenov, initially said she died of plague, then softened to "may have died," while Irkutsk officials described a "particularly dangerous infection" and later logged it as pneumonia of unknown etiology unrelated to her work.
Experts questioned the lab-leak narrative; epidemiologist Michael Favorov noted staff wear full protective suits, making a broken tube infection unlikely. Former Rospotrebnadzor head Gennady Onishchenko also questioned a plague link.
Context: pneumonic plague spreads via respiratory droplets and is almost always fatal without rapid antibiotics, per WHO. Russia's last documented human case was in 2016 in Altai. No confirmed secondary infections have been reported.
