A suspected plague outbreak has erupted in Russia — killing a young lab worker, forcing nearly 200 people into isolation and triggering accusations that Vladimir Putin’s regime is trying to keep the infection’s possible spread under wraps.
The alarm was raised in Siberia after a worker at an anti-plague laboratory died of the disease, which killed tens of millions in the medieval Black Death, according to a report fromThe Moscow Times.
Anna Popova, who heads Russia’s public-health watchdog, then rushed 2,600 miles from Moscow to the Irkutsk region as authorities quarantined a hospital and placed scores of people who had come into contact with the victim under medical observation.
Black Death Flagellants in the Netherlands scourging themselves in atonement, believing that the Black Death is a punishment from God for their sins, 1349.
A test tube holding live bacteria broke while a young assistant collected samples at the Irkutsk institute, reports say Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID, NIH
Shipilova’s mother was vehement that her daughter did not break a test tube, resorting to somewhat hyperbolic and inaccurate descriptions about the imperviousness of tubes used in high containment labs. Tubes can and do break in containment, even though they are not made of glass. When plastic tubes are frozen at -80° C (the standard temperature of lab freezers used to store virus stocks), they can become brittle, especially polystyrene tubes. This is why I avoid using 5 mL Falcon tubes and 15 mL conicals for larger volumes of virus: they are the most likely to fracture or leak after coming out of the freezer. Also, human beings are imperfect and can spill a tube’s contents, no matter how fastidious and careful they are.
Retired, living in the Scottish Borders after living most of my life in cities in England. I can now indulge my interest in all aspects of living close to nature in a wild landscape. I live on what was once the Iapetus Ocean which took millions of years to travel from the Southern Hemisphere to here in the Northern Hemisphere. That set me thinking and questioning and seeking answers.
In 1998 I co-wrote Millennium Countdown (US)/ A Business Guide to the Year 2000 (UK) see https://www.abebooks.co.uk/products/isbn/9780749427917
You must be logged in to post a comment.