Plague epidemiological situation remains stable, Health Ministry says

According to Nurmat Atabekov, first deputy chairman of the Committee for Sanitary and Epidemiological Welfare and Public Health, work to prevent the importation of especially dangerous infections into the country continues. There are 53 sanitary quarantine checkpoints operating at international airports, railway stations, and road border crossings, and medical surveillance is conducted on arrivals from abroad. Regional laboratories that test for such infections are fully supplied with diagnostic equipment, culture media, and reagents, according to the ministry.

Citing Rospotrebnadzor, the statement notes that the connection between the case in Irkutsk region and plague, including its pneumonic form, has not yet been confirmed, and studies are ongoing. The case involves an employee of an anti-plague institute who died on the night of October 2 in Shelekhov, a satellite city of Irkutsk.

Back on October 3, the committee reported that it was monitoring the situation based on official data from Russian agencies and the World Health Organization, and had heightened service readiness to prevent dangerous infections from entering the country and spreading. The committee asked residents not to believe unverified information and to rely only on official sources.