Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old technician at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, accidentally broke a test tube containing Yersinia pestis on 25 September. The account of the case says she was admitted to the Shelekhov district hospital on 29 September, became unwell at work on 30 September, and died in the early hours of 2 October from pneumonia of unknown origin.
Her death prompted the Hulunbuir Center for Disease Control and Prevention in China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region to issue a plague-risk advisory on 10 October 2026. The city shares a border with Russia’s Far East and has frequent cross-border population movement with the region.
The advisory told arrivals from plague-endemic areas of Russia’s Far East to monitor their health, seek medical care quickly if symptoms develop, and tell medical staff about relevant travel if they seek treatment.
The institute put nearly 200 people under medical observation after Shipilova’s death. Russian authorities have denied that she died of plague, although a senior official initially said she had died of it before changing the statement.
The World Health Organization said that “a key uncertainty remains the absence of a confirmed diagnosis” and called on Moscow to clarify reports that a second employee was ill. Officials and health experts have said no plague cases have been confirmed.
On 8 October 2026, Igor Kobzev, the governor of Russia’s Irkutsk region, said preventive quarantine measures had been completed and that nearly 5,000 laboratory tests had found no dangerous pathogenic microorganisms. Authorities in the region lifted all disease-control measures that day.
The Irkutsk institute operates in Siberia, where plague occurs naturally in wild animals. It was founded in 1923, when plague was widespread in the Transbaikal region, and was reorganised as the Irkutsk State Anti-Plague Institute in 1934.
China’s Foreign Ministry said on 6 October 2026 that Beijing and Moscow maintained close exchanges and cooperation on the prevention and control of infectious diseases, including plague. Virologist Ian Jones said the episode appeared to be a rare and isolated laboratory accident that was unlikely to spread widely.
Hulunbuir is itself a historical natural plague focus. It has recorded no human plague cases since 1927, while local disease-control surveillance in recent years has found no plague outbreaks among rodent populations. China classifies plague as a Class A disease.
The advisory was followed by safety alerts and emergency meetings at disease-control agencies in northeastern Chinese cities, including Hulunbuir and Manzhouli. Officials in Manzhouli said surveillance should be strengthened with port and customs authorities. Mongolia’s health ministry instructed relevant agencies to take precautionary measures and keep surveillance continuous.
Travel volumes have sharpened the concern for border health authorities. More than 3 million people moved between Russia and China in 2025, while travel from Russia to China rose from 1.9 million in 2024 to 2.5 million in 2025 after visa-free travel was introduced. Some Chinese residents began stockpiling supplies and masks after the Hulunbuir advisory.
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