Plague: Russian authorities must show “full transparency” over lab worker’s death, World Medical Association says

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The World Medical Association has called on Russian authorities to disclose information about the death of Darya Shipilova, a laboratory technician at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute. Shipilova died after severe pneumonia; Russian officials and the WHO have given differing descriptions of the suspected cause, and the WMA says the lack of transparency is concerning.

The World Medical Association (WMA) has called on Russian authorities to share “all available information” about the death of a laboratory technician who worked at a plague research institute, saying the country’s lack of transparency is “of great concern.”1Darya Shipilova, who worked at the Irkutsk Antiplague Research Institute in the Siberia region of Russia, died on 2 October, two days after being admitted to hospital for severe pneumonia and placed on a ventilator.2Russian officials initially avoided publicly referring to plague. But Alexei Tsydenov, head of the neighbouring republic of Buryatia, said that the woman may have died from an unspecified form of plague.3The World Health Organization (WHO) has described the lab worker’s cause of death as “pneumonia of undetermined aetiology” and said that Russia has informed the agency that “no case of plague had been registered recently in Irkutsk Oblast.”4Russia has also said that laboratory testing of contacts has detected...