Mongolian Health Ministry advises citizens to refrain from visits to China over mysterious pneumonia outbreak

AKIPRESS.COM - The Mongolian Ministry of Health has warned about risk of spread of mysterious virus from China, since the country borders with China and is a railway and road transit country en route to Russia and Europe. The Ministry of Health recommends citizens not to visit China, not to use raw meat and fish products and wear masks.
Chinese health authorities have not been able to identify a mysterious strain of pneumonia that has infected dozens of people and put the rest of Asia on alert -- although they have ruled out a return of the deadly severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) virus, CNN reports.
A total of 59 cases of unknown viral pneumonia have been reported in the city of Wuhan, central China, with seven patients in critical condition, the Wuhan Municipal Health Commission said in a statement on Sunday. All patients are being treated in quarantine, and no deaths have been reported.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), symptoms of the pneumonia are mainly fever, with a number of patients having difficulty breathing, and chest radiographs showing invasive lesions of both lungs.
According to the Wuhan health commission, the infection broke out between December 12 and December 29, with some of the patients employed at a seafood market in the city.
Local media reported that the market -- which has been closed since January 1 for disinfection -- also sold other live animals, including birds, rabbits and snakes, sparking concerns that the virus might have been transmitted to humans from animals.
Professor David Hui Shu-cheong, a respiratory expert at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, said it is highly likely that the outbreak was caused by a "brand-new viral pneumonia."
"The concern now is whether the game (sold at the market) is one of the reasons for the outbreak," he told CNN.