Reports claiming that maternity hospitals in the Siberian city of Irkutsk are forcing patients to fill out plague suspicion checklists have been debunked as false.
Blogger Ulyana Gavryunina told the media project People of Baikal that patients at an Irkutsk maternity hospital were being required to complete questionnaire forms titled Check-list upon suspicion of CVI Plague.
She also claimed that a restricted entry regime had been introduced at the medical center starting on Friday, prohibiting anyone other than pregnant patients from entering the facility.
However, an analysis of the video clip presented by the blogger revealed clear signs that the paper document had been altered using image editing software.
The color of the paper background beneath the heading of the questionnaire in the video clip differed from the rest of the document. In addition, the text reading CVI Plague stood out in a darker font color. CVI refers to Particularly Dangerous Infections.
Irkutsk is a major administrative city in eastern Siberia, located near Lake Baikal along the Trans-Siberian Railway. The People of Baikal project, which covers regional news in Siberia, has been designated as a foreign agent by Russian authorities.
Sanitary Regime Denials
The Ministry of Health of the Irkutsk Region issued an official denial regarding rumors that an enhanced sanitary-epidemiological regime and strict restrictions had been imposed across the territory.
Regional health officials stated that no such decisions had been taken. They emphasized that the sanitary and epidemiological situation in the Irkutsk region, as well as in the cities of Irkutsk and Shelekhov, remained calm.
Shelekhov is an industrial town located a short distance southwest of Irkutsk. Prior to the ministry statement, healthcare facilities across the Irkutsk region had also rejected separate rumors claiming that hospitals were undergoing mass quarantine closures.
Origins of Disinformation
False reports about plague in the Irkutsk region began spreading online following the death of a female employee at the Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute.
Initial social media posts claimed that the woman died after becoming infected with plague at work. Russia's public health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor refuted those claims following detailed laboratory tests.
Rospotrebnadzor, formally known as the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing, is Russia's primary public health and epidemiological control agency.
Comprehensive laboratory testing established that the patient died from pneumonia of unestablished etiology. A close acquaintance and former colleague of the deceased stated that no laboratory accident involving the worker had occurred.
He noted that an official commission appointed to examine the circumstances of her death found no indications of a laboratory accident at the institute.
The Irkutsk Anti-Plague Institute is a specialized research institution that monitors dangerous infectious diseases and carries out biological surveillance across Siberia.
Kremlin Response
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov also addressed the situation, refusing to confirm rumors of a plague outbreak in the Irkutsk region and urging the public to trust only official sources.
Peskov serves as the official spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, regularly issuing statements on state administration, national security, and public health matters.
The fake information failed to gain traction in Russian news media. The debunking material was prepared with the participation of Lapsha Media, a fact-checking resource dedicated to countering digital disinformation.
Plague is a severe bacterial infection caused by Yersinia pestis. While large outbreaks are rare today, natural foci of the disease persist in wild rodent populations across parts of Eurasia, requiring ongoing monitoring by specialized health agencies.
