IRKUTSK -- The virus of atypical pneumonia has been created artificially, possibly as a bacteriological weapon, believes Sergei Kolesnikov, Academician of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences.

He expressed this opinion at a news conference in Irkutsk (Siberia) on Thursday.

According to him, the virus of atypical pneumonia is a synthesis of two viruses (of measles and infectious parotiditis or mumps), the natural compound of which is impossible.

This can be done only in a laboratory, the academician is convinced. He also said that in creating bacteriological weapons a protective anti-viral vaccine is, as a rule, worked out at the same time.

Therefore, the scientist believes, a medicine for atypical pneumonia may soon appear.

He does not exclude that the spread of the virus could have begun accidentally, as a result of "an unsanctioned leakage" from a laboratory.

Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
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The Atypical Pneumonia Virus Has Been Created
Artificially Says Scientist Sergei Kolesnikov
By Alexander Batalin
RIA Novosti correspondent