The Health Ministry of France confirmed the second diagnosis of a new SARS-like coronavirus, which can be transmitted from person to person through close contact.
The Health Ministry of France confirmed Saturday that a second man was diagnosed with a new SARS-like novel coronavirus (nCoV). The 50-year-old man was infected with the virus after sharing a hospital room with the only known sufferer of the virus in France leading the World Health Organization (WHO) to declare that the virus can spread from person to person through close contact. The first man, aged 65 years, fell ill after his visit to Dubai and was later diagnosed with the virus.
The second man's infection proves that the virus can be transmitted through air as well, according to Professor Benoit Guery, head of the Lille hospital's infectious diseases unit. However, Guery emphasizes that the public should not panic as the virus is not easily transmittable.
Nonetheless, authorities screened 124 people from the hospital where the two were admitted and all tests returned negative.
The new found virus was discovered in the Gulf and has now spread to France, Germany and Britain. Two people have already died in Saudi Arabia after being infected with the virus, which causes pneumonia and sometimes kidney failure. Health organizations have expressed their concerns about the rising number of cases concerning the nCoV and worry about its potential spread.
A recent WHO report confirms the reporting of 33 nCoV cases across Europe and the Middle East with 18 deaths since 2012.
"Of most concern... is the fact that the different clusters seen in multiple countries increasingly support the hypothesis that when there is close contact this novel coronavirus can transmit from person to person," World Health Organization said on Sunday. "This pattern of person-to-person transmission has remained limited to some small clusters and so far, there is no evidence to suggest the virus has the capacity to sustain generalized transmission in communities."
