adminThe first victim, also being treated at the University Hospital in the northern city of Lille, was said to be in a “very serious but stable” condition as health officials attempted to play down public concern over two cases that are attracting intense media coverage.
The virus, known as nCoV-EMC, is a cousin of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), which killed nearly 800 people in the Far East in 2002-03.
The new virus is known to have killed at least 18 people, mostly in Saudi Arabia.
The latest French victim shared a hospital room with a 65-year-old man for three days before the latter was diagnosed with the virus, which it is thought he contracted while on holiday in Dubai last month.
Professor Benoit Guery, a specialist in infectious diseases at the hospital, said the transmission between patients should not be taken as an indication that the virus was more contagious than previously thought. — AFP.
Online Reporter