A dangerous bacterium escaped from a lab in Siberia? The mysterious death Russia is trying to silence

The US is demanding Russia disclose details about the mysterious death of Daria Shipilova (28), an employee at an epidemic research institute in Siberia. Western concerns center on exposure to a dangerous pathogen, while Moscow provides only partial information. Secretary of State Marco Rubio calls for transparency, and the incident evokes memories of the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax outbreak.

The United States has issued a sharp warning to Moscow, claiming that its refusal to disclose details about the mysterious death of an employee at a plague research center in Siberia constitutes a violation of its international health obligations. At the center of the storm is Daria Shipilova (28), an employee at the Institute for Plague Research in Irkutsk, Siberia. Days after her death, Russian authorities have yet to publish the exact cause, settling for a vague statement that she died of "pneumonia from an unknown cause." The lack of transparency fuels rumors that her lab work led to exposure to a lethal pathogen, and various media reports have raised concerns about the plague bacterium. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio emphasized that the information Moscow has shared so far is "still quite limited," and called on Russia to act transparently. The current incident evokes dark memories from the past, including the 1979 Sverdlovsk anthrax accident. The institute in Irkutsk, established in 1934 under Joseph Stalin's rule, has continued over the years to monitor and research diseases such as cholera and anthrax.