Paris (dpa) - A Frenchman diagnosed last month with coronavirus
died Tuesday, becoming the first fatality from the SARS-like illness
in France, the health ministry said.
The 65-year-old man who presented with symptoms of the respiratory
illness after a visit to Dubai and Saudi Arabia died in hospital in
the northern town of Lille.
Another man who contracted the virus after sharing a hospital room
with him is undergoing treatment in hospital.
Coronavirus was first discovered in 2012 in a man in Saudi Arabia.
At least 23 people have died from the virus since then, mostly in
the Arabian Peninsula. Apart from Saudi Arabia and France, Jordan,
Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Germany, Tunisia and Britain have
also reported infections, according to the World Health Organization
(WHO).
"Looking at the overall world health situation, my greatest
concern right now is the novel coronavirus," WHO Director General
Margaret Chan said Monday, calling it "a threat to the entire world."
Coronavirus belongs to the same group of viruses as SARS, or
severe acute respiratory syndrome, which 10 years ago killed about
800 people.
Copyright 2013 dpa Deutsche Presse-Agentur GmbH