Plague · Full chronicle and history

Residents of Nigeria's capital Abuja express concern over the Ebola outbreak and potential lockdown measures.

According to a post by X user QuanLujun (@QuanLujun) at 11:29 Beijing time on October 14, Hulunbuir City issued a plague prevention and control risk alert, and stated that those previously accused of spreading rumors should respond. This post is the only source in this batch, with a related link attached; the specific details of the alert were not elaborated in the post.

On October 13, a reporter called the Hulunbuir Municipal Health Commission, and staff responded that there was no local plague outbreak. The plague prevention and control risk advisory issued earlier was merely routine public science education, and the related content has now been deleted to avoid public misunderstanding.

An AFP correspondent reporting from the site of the outbreak in Russia's Far East said local residents revealed that the actual number of plague deaths was 10, contradicting the official Russian figure of 1, drawing attention.

Reports circulating online claim that three suspected cases of plague imported from Russia have been found in Henan, China, and the host reminds the public to pay attention and take precautions.

The Hulunbuir City Center for Disease Control and Prevention stated in a document that the area is a natural plague reservoir and warned of the risk of pneumonic plague coming from the Far East region of Russia.

On October 11, the official authorities of Hulunbuir, Inner Mongolia, issued a plague prevention and control risk alert, mentioning that an employee of the Plague Control and Research Institute in Irkutsk, Russia, died on October 2 from pneumonia of unknown cause. The alert reminded people coming from epidemic areas in the Russian Far East to seek immediate medical attention if they develop suspected symptoms and to disclose their travel history. The World Health Organization said on October 10 that it still could not determine the cause of the disease.

On October 9, Chinese netizens posted videos showing many Chinese people in Russia waiting at customs to return home; other netizens, worried about the risk of the epidemic spreading, demanded that all returning personnel be rounded up and quarantined.

On October 8, the governor of Russia's Irkutsk Oblast announced that quarantine for close contacts related to the local plague research institute had ended and medical observation was completed.

On October 8, Dongjing News, run by Guizhou Radio and Television, posted a video on Bilibili claiming that online reports of plague cases in Russia were false news, and that in fact an employee of a Russian plague research institute had been diagnosed with pneumonia of unknown cause. In the comment section, netizens flooded the thread with sarcasm at the official debunking routine.

The World Health Organization says it has been in touch with Russian authorities and is tracking developments following the death of a female staff member at a plague research center in the Irkutsk region of Siberia.

U.S. Secretary of State Rubio asked Russia in Iceland to release more information about the Irkutsk laboratory incident to the world, and warned against repeating the disaster of China covering up the epidemic.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow publicly announced deaths from a rat lung disease and quarantine measures, calling on U.S. citizens to cancel trips to Russia immediately or leave as soon as possible.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry stated on October 6 that China and Russia maintain close exchange and cooperation in the prevention and control of infectious diseases, including plague.

A laboratory worker at Russia's Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute died of severe pneumonia of unknown cause, followed by reports of a second employee's death, and the World Health Organization has requested that Moscow provide more information.

Daria, a 28-year-old female lab technician at Russia's Irkutsk Plague Research Institute, died of severe pneumonia. The laboratory had previously handled Yersinia pestis and may have broken a test tube.

More than 60 employees of the Anti-Plague Research Institute in Irkutsk, Russia have been locked inside the facility, nearly 200 contacts are under medical observation, the hospital in Shelekhov District has been sealed off, and local judicial authorities have opened a case on suspicion of violating safety regulations.

On October 2, an employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Research Institute in Russia died. The institute's director, Balakhonov, had participated in a China-Russia cross-border epidemic prevention drill in Fuyuan, Heilongjiang, from August 24 to 27. The drill's content included responding to plague imported from abroad, reporting epidemic information, and conducting joint risk assessments.

An AFP correspondent's investigation in a city in Russia's Far East hit by plague found ten dead, and Mongolia's health authorities have issued an alert over the risk of the outbreak spreading.

According to a Sound of Hope report, Inner Mongolia's Hulunbuir, Hunan and Guangdong successively issued plague prevention information, and the public rushed to buy medication; a Russian tour guide with Sound of Hope said that quotes for some return flights reached 20,000 yuan; officials again emphasized "preventable and controllable," leaving the public even more uneasy.

The female researcher infected at the Irkutsk anti-plague research institute is being hospitalized in Shelekhov with symptoms of severe pneumonia.

A 28-year-old female lab technician at a plague research institute in the Russian Far East died several days after the onset of symptoms from pneumonic plague, raising concerns about laboratory safety and the spread of the virus.

A laboratory accident occurred at the anti-plague research institute in Shelekhov, near Irkutsk, Russia. A 28-year-old female staff member developed severe pneumonia on September 29 after breaking a test tube and died in the ICU on October 2, leading to the quarantine of several local personnel.

India approves its first dengue vaccine, bringing hope in the fight against a severe epidemic; over the past five years India has reported more than 1 million dengue cases, and the actual figure may be far higher.

On August 18, 2026, NTD reported that a Hebei Health Commission staff member said the 522,000 new confirmed cases in July released by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention only reflect medical consultation data, and that the real number of infections is higher, with hospital beds in tight supply and long queues for cremation in many places; the claim has not been officially confirmed.

A tender notice for the procurement of anti-plague protective suits by the 14th General Outpatient Clinic in Samara, Russia, was published before August 12, drawing attention and raising questions about local plague prevention and the concealment of outbreaks.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus warned that the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo is spreading at an unprecedented rate; government data shows 3,874 confirmed cases and 1,751 deaths.

On August 2, 2026, medical staff from multiple public hospitals in Fujian reported on social media platforms that local health authorities were demanding the return of temporary epidemic-prevention subsidies and allowances legally disbursed during the pandemic, sparking dissatisfaction among grassroots workers in the medical system.

China's Center for Disease Control and Prevention released monitoring data showing that the positivity rate of COVID-19 tests rose from July 20 to July 26, up 4 percentage points compared with the previous week, with the dominant strain being NB.1.8.1.

On July 30, 2026, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention released surveillance data showing that the positivity rate for COVID-19 among influenza-like cases in outpatient and emergency departments of sentinel hospitals nationwide climbed to 20.3%, with fever clinic patients increasing significantly in Guangdong, Henan and many other places.

The Lanzhou Institute of Biological Products applied on December 17, 2025 for a patent concerning the stable and large-scale production of the Yersinia pestis F1 antigen.

Beijing Guokerong'an Biotech applied for a patent related to a plague vaccine on November 20, 2025.

After the EcoHealth Alliance announced its impending closure following the anti-science investigation controversy, Peter Daszak announced the establishment of a new non-profit organization, Nature Health Global, to continue operations.

Bai Yansong interviewed Liang Wannian on the program News 1+1, raising nine questions about the economic cost and necessity of the dynamic zero-COVID policy; the program only arranged for Liang Wannian alone to answer and reiterated the policy's rationality.