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SARS: a biological weapon?

Moscow April 11. A top Russian medical expert today did not rule out that the deadly virus, which causes the atypical pneumonia or the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) could be a biological weapon developed by China.

According to Sergei Kolesnikov, a member of Russian Medical Sciences Academy, the SARS virus is a hybrid of two viruses, which can only be produced in laboratory conditions, TVS network reported.

Speaking at a conference in the Siberian city of Irkutsk, Prof. Kolesnikov, also a member of Russian Duma noted that the SARS outbreak took place in two southern districts of China and for a long time the Chinese authorities kept mum about it.

Prof. Kolesnikov also noted that the severe toxic nature and the speed with which SARS was spreading, also permitted to draw the inference that it was a man-made biological weapon.

``If it is true then its antidote should be looked where it originated,'' Prof. Kolesnikov was quoted as saying the televsion.

— PTI

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