Mother rejects broken-tube account after researcher’s death

Darya Shipilova, a 28-year-old researcher at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute, died on October 2 after becoming ill. Her mother, Svetlana Shipilova, has rejected claims that a broken test tube caused her daughter’s illness, but the cause of death and whether a laboratory exposure occurred have not been established by the available information. Svetlana Shipilova told a Russian outlet that the protective tube could not have been broken or spilled in the way described. She said she was challenging acquaintances who believed that account. Her statement is the family’s account; the reports do not provide independent evidence confirming how Shipilova became ill. Russian officials have been reported as describing the cause of death as pneumonia of unknown origin. Russia’s health watchdog, Rospotrebnadzor, was reported to have said testing found no microorganisms in Shipilova’s body linked to her work. Local officials had earlier posted claims that she died of plague, but those posts were later deleted, according to one report. The reports do not include medical records, laboratory results or an incident investigation establishing the cause of her illness.