Paris (dpa) - Three suspected cases of the SARS-like coronavirus
have been discovered in northern France, health authorities said
Friday after confirming the country's first case of the deadly
respiratory infection this week.
The three cases were believed to be linked to that of a
65-year-old man, who was hospitalized last month after a visit to
Dubai and Saudi Arabia. The health ministry confirmed he had France's
first known case of coronavirus.
Since then, a doctor in the town of Valenciennes, where he
received treatment; a patient who shared his hospital room; and a
nurse from the nearby town of Douai, where he was first hospitalized,
have all presented with coronavirus symptoms, the health agency of
the northern region said. The three are undergoing tests.
The patient, himself, is listed in very serious but stable
condition in an isolation ward in a hospital in Lille.
Human coronavirus, or hCoV, was first discovered in 2012 in a man
in Saudi Arabia. Almost all of the 17 cases reported to the World
Health Organization (WHO) as of April 25 had originated in the
Arabian Peninsula.
Coronavirus belongs to the same group as SARS, or severe acute
respiratory syndrome, which 10 years ago killed about 800 people.
The WHO said 11 patients have died of hCoV.
Copyright 2013 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH