Kathmandu, January 8

Chinese health officials ruled out SARS alongside the related virus that causes MERS, or Middle East respiratory syndrome, and bird flu after more than 50 people were affected by mysterious pneumonia.

“I have to emphasize this is a new disease, and no one on earth has gone through this before,” Leo Poon, a public health expert at the University of Hong Kong, told as quoted in the The New York Times.

According to health officials, the Associated Press reported that more than 50 people had been diagnosed with the mystery illness, with all known cases seeming to originate from Wuhan, the capital city of the Hubei province. Victims have commonly experienced fever, though several have developed breathing problems as well.

It has been reported that in a few patients, medical imaging has found clear signs of a serious lung infection, with at least seven people currently in critical condition.

While the likely culprit is a virus, doctors quickly ruled out suspects that typically cause respiratory illness, like a strain of influenza or an adenovirus. Less certain was whether it could be an re-emergence of the virus behind SARS, or severe acute respiratory syndrome. The SARS virus was first discovered during a 2002 outbreak that sickened over 8,000 people and killed more than 700 people, predominantly in China and Hong Kong, as per news portal Gizmodo.

Hamro Doctor