 country office in Russia, has dismissed speculation about the emergence of a new virus in the country, according to local media reports on Friday.){kind=link}
Batyr Berdyklychev, the head of the World Health Organization (WHO) country office in Russia, has dismissed speculation about the emergence of a new virus in the country, according to local media reports on Friday.
Berdyklychev clarified that the recent suspected cases in Russia were linked to the known bacterial infection, mycoplasma pneumonia.
He noted that the WHO had requested relevant data from Russian health authorities following reports of patients coughing up blood, NAN reports.
“Following investigations, including laboratory confirmation, it was determined that the five reported cases in Moscow and the Moscow region were caused by mycoplasma pneumonia,” Berdyklychev said.
“This is not a new virus, and the number of cases doesn’t pose an increased epidemiological risk.”
“This is a very good example of the fact that the Russian Federation has set up a reliable epidemiological surveillance system,” he added.