MOSCOW. April 3 (Interfax-AVN) - The virus causing atypical pneumonia may have been grown by special services related to bacteriological weapons, Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences and a State Duma lawmaker, told Interfax-Military News Agency Thursday.
"The propagation of the atypical pneumonia may well be caused by a leak of a combat virus grown in Asian bacteriological weapons labs," he said.
"Should it turn out true, the source has to be found as quickly as possible on order to apply to the developers to disclose the antidote. The antidote is always developed together with a bacteriological weapon," he added.
He also said that "what exactly is the cause of the disease, a virus bacteria, or maybe something else, is still unclear. So far it is supposed to be a coronavirus with a long record, but previously with another host, which might be monkeys. The same thing was with AIDS, and no effective remedy has also been found yet."
"All that testifies that the atypical pneumonia is nothing but a leak of a combat virus," he emphasized.
At the same time, Kolesnikov said that "no panic must be spread among the people. There must be a normal concern. The health of people, in particular of those travelling by air or by train, has to be monitored, and a doctor should be called in at once if the primary symptoms come out."
He added that Russia had already engaged the Paster Virology Research Institute and Influenza Research Institute, Russian Academy of Medical Sciences, to the research on the disease.