On 2 October 2026, Igor Kobzev spoke to the people of the Irkutsk region in Russia. He is the governor, the leader of the region. He talked about a very dangerous infection, and he said the situation was under control. But for one day, he did not say the word “plague.”
Darya Shipilova was 28 years old. She worked in a lab in the Irkutsk region. The lab studied dangerous diseases. Local news said she broke a small glass tube with plague bacteria in it. She died in a hospital in Shelekhov, a town near Irkutsk.
Other news said she broke the tube by accident at work. On 29 September she went to the hospital. She was very sick in her lungs. A machine helped her breathe, but she died a few days later.
Plague in the lungs is very dangerous. It goes from person to person when people cough. Without quick help from doctors, almost everybody dies.
Nearly 200 people may have been near her, so doctors watched them carefully. The hospital in Shelekhov was closed.
Alexei Tsydenov is the leader of Buryatia, a region next to Irkutsk. He said the woman died of plague. He also said there was no plague in Buryatia. Later, his words were changed. On 3 October, the town of Baikalsk told people not to travel to Shelekhov. A few hours later, it deleted this message. Many people were afraid.
The director of a big factory in Shelekhov told workers to wear masks. Some hospitals in Irkutsk closed for three weeks. In Shelekhov, people saw other people in special suits and gloves in the streets. Children got masks in kindergartens.
On Sunday, 4 October, Russia’s national health office spoke. It said everything in the region was calm. It said the woman died of a lung illness, but it did not know the cause.
So the people of Irkutsk heard about a lung illness. But one person said some doctors in Irkutsk were already saying the word “plague.”