DAILY STAR
The mystery Covid-like Chinese virus causing havoc around the world could actually be a long-forgotten illness from the late 1800s, scientists fear.
The strange unidentified virus has been causing chaos in China for weeks, with the world on high alert over fears a new pandemic could be on the way. Although it so far only seems to impact children, it saw officials in neighbouring countries such as India, who are wary of another virus spreading through their population following the outbreak of the coronavirus in 2019, readying themselves for action.
And it has now been revealed that scientists in nearby Indonesia are now gearing up their laboratory network to test for symptoms of mycoplasma pneumonia – first detected in 1898. According to the Jakarta Post, the country’s Health Minister Budi Gunadi Sadikin said that a testing for the virus is about to get under way.
He told an audience that “this was done in response to the increasing cases of pneumonia due to mycoplasma bacterial infection in China.”
