White House 'monitoring' suspected Irkutsk plague case

The White House says it is "monitoring" the suspected pneumonic plague case in Irkutsk, Russia, where 28-year-old lab technician Daria Shipilova died October 1–2 after reportedly breaking a test tube of live bacteria on September 25. Governor Kobzev says her contacts show no illness and tests have come back negative; Rospotrebnadzor chief Anna Popova flew to Irkutsk personally. Roughly 197 contacts were isolated; no confirmed secondary infections so far.

Moscow still has not issued an official plague diagnosis — the federal cause of death remains "pneumonia of unknown cause," though Buryatia's head named plague before softening. Epidemiologist Favorov publicly disputes the broken-test-tube account as a cover-up. A mask order is in effect in Shelekhov, and antibiotic shortages have been reported. Caveats stand: conflicting exposure accounts and heavy reliance on Russian media.

Sources: New York Post