Emergency quarantine protocols are in place in Irkutsk after a suspected laboratory accident

Russian health authorities have reportedly placed hundreds of people in quarantine in Siberia following the death of a laboratory worker who was exposed to an “unknown” virus.

The 28-year-old victim was an employee at the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Shelekhov, a town near the regional capital of Irkutsk, according to reports.

Prior to her death, she reportedly told medical personnel that she had accidentally broken a test tube containing live biological samples while working inside the facility.

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[–] -3 points 6 hours ago (3 children)

what kind of scientist accidently breaks open a test tube containing plague

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  • [–] 20 points 6 hours ago

    I've lost count of the glassware I've broken. Now none of them were plague cultures, but I wouldn't get less clumsy just because they were.

    Also this sort of thing becomes more likely when we're overworked and tired. So if you don't want another plague, it might be a good idea to make sure your local scientists have reasonable workloads.

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  • [–] 14 points 6 hours ago

    There are a lot of labs who work on all kinds of diseases. They keep them in test tubes sometimes. Accidents happen. The big issue is there should be protocols that prevent that accident from spreading, which there apparently weren't in this case. This could be for a ton of reasons, like the person not following protocol, or issues caused by a lack of funding due to the war. I don't think we can really speculate on why this happened, just that it did, and the fact that they were doing this work isn't that strange.

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