WHO and US Press Russia for Answers After Siberian Lab Worker Dies of Unexplained Pneumonia
Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute of Siberia and the Far East, died on October 2, 2026, of pneumonia of undetermined origin. Russia's public health agency, Rospotrebnadzor, said testing found no evidence her illness was linked to any pathogen she worked with. The WHO and the US government have both requested that Russia provide additional information about the circumstances of her death.
Shipilova, described by colleagues as a highly qualified and diligent researcher, was first hospitalized with cold symptoms on September 29 and died three days later at a hospital in Shelekhov, a town outside Irkutsk, according to the Russian news outlet Lyudi Baikala. Her mother, a former doctor, told independent Russian outlet Glubina that she had not received official documents stating the cause of death. Disinfection teams conducted several cleanups of Shipilova's apartment following her death, according to neighbors.
Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO director of Epidemic and Pandemic Management, said Wednesday that the agency does not know what the "causative agent" was behind Shipilova's death and urged Russia to share more information. "We don't understand how she was infected," Van Kerkhove said. The WHO said it has requested further information to clarify the cause of the severe pneumonia, the pathogen that prompted public health measures, and media reports that a second employee had pneumonia of undetermined cause.
Rospotrebnadzor said the "sanitary and epidemiological situation" in the Irkutsk region was "calm," and that among the dead woman's contacts, only two cases of COVID-19 and two rhinovirus infections had been detected. Russia told the WHO that no case of plague had been registered in the region. The hospital where Shipilova died was placed under quarantine and was no longer admitting or discharging patients, though its outpatient clinic continued to operate, according to the Irkutsk mayor.