A regional center for disease control and prevention (CDC) in Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, China, issued an announcement implementing “plague risk prevention” protocol in response to an alleged case of pneumonic plague in neighboring Siberia, Russia, Chinese state media reported on Monday. The Chinese government newspaper Global Times observed that Hulunbuir borders Russia and is taking precautionary measures in the event a plague outbreak is detected in Siberia. While pneumonic plague is endemic in Siberia, Hulunbuir has allegedly not documented a single case of “human plague” since 1927 and seeks to maintain that streak.
The announcement was somewhat unexpected as the government of Russia announced last week that it had completed all contact tracing and monitoring regarding the suspected plague scare and had not identified any new cases of the infection in the affected area, effectively declaring the situation concluded. Chinese state media did not clarify why regional authorities in Inner Mongolia chose to impose public health restrictions days after the reported conclusion of contact tracing in Russia. Local reports in Irkutsk, Siberia, revealed the death of Daria Shipilova, 28, in early October. Russian authorities ultimately confirmed that the woman had died of pneumonia of an unknown case and, as of press time, have not offered any more explanation for what happened to her. The case caused international concern as Shipilova was employed at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute. Local reports claimed that she had broken a vial or test tube carrying a live pathogen of some sort shortly before her death, but Russian government officials denied those reports, declaring most reported information on the matter to be false. The announcement from the Hulunbuir CDC did not contradict the Russian government, but did identify the Shipilova case as the trigger for its new protocol.
