On Yunost Island in Irkutsk, an El Tor cholera vibrio strain was found, making swimming and fishing there unsafe. Epidemiologists warn it can cause intestinal infection, and the city has increased water checks, warning signs, and monitoring of medical visits.

Swimming on Younost Island is dangerous to health.
During scheduled weekly water sample analyses, scientists from the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East detected a strain of the El Tor cholera vibrio in the inland waters of Younost Island. The number of bacterial colonies indicates that by the time the water was collected, the El Tor cholera vibrio had been there for several days and had been multiplying intensively all that time. Epidemiologists warn: swimming on Younost Island is now unsafe for health. The bacterium does not pose a threat to life, but a person who swallows water while swimming may feel symptoms of a bacterial intestinal infection a few hours later.
In the near future, inspections will be carried out in Irkutsk of facilities engaged in economic activity on the coast of the right bank of the Angara River. All retail outlets on Younost Island will be inspected, since the bacterium could have been introduced into the inland waters of Younost Island and spread through the ring specially created for water circulation around the island.
In addition, several potentially dangerous facilities located upstream of the Angara River will be checked: the newly discovered discharge toward the city center from the right-bank interchange of the Academic Bridge and several construction sites where places for the compact accommodation of migrant workers have been set up.
“The administration of the city of Irkutsk recommends that residents not swim or fish on Younost Island. – For this purpose, employees of the Department for Civil Defense and Emergency Situations of the administration of the city of Irkutsk are installing warning signs. If previously, under the terms of the municipal contract, specialists from the Irkutsk Research Anti-Plague Institute of Siberia and the Far East took water samples for analysis once a week, now this is done almost daily. Medical institutions are monitoring patients who seek care with acute intestinal infections of unknown etiology.”​
According to materials from the press service of the administration of the city of Irkutsk.