Virus spreads person-to-person: France confirms second case of new SARS-like coronavirus infection

 

May 12, 2013 – FRANCE – A second diagnosis of the new SARS-like coronavirus has been confirmed in France, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, in what appeared to be a case of human-to-human transmission. The new infection was found in a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with France’s only other known sufferer, the ministry said in a statement. Health experts are concerned about clusters of the new coronavirus strain, nCoV, which was first spotted in the Gulf and has spread to France, Britain and Germany. There has so far been little evidence of direct and sustained human-to-human transmission of nCoV – in contrast to the pattern seen in the related Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) virus, which killed 775 people in 2003. The first nCoV case in France, confirmed on May 8, is a 65-year-old man who fell ill after returning from Dubai late last month. Both French patients are in hospital in the northern city of Lille, where the younger man was transferred to intensive care on Sunday as his breathing deteriorated. His case suggests that airborne transmission of the virus is possible, though still unusual, said Professor Benoit Guery, head of the Lille hospital’s infectious diseases unit. “Fortunately, this remains a virus that is not easily transmitted,” Guery told the BFMTV channel. “I don’t think the public should be concerned – it has been out there for a year and we have 34 cases globally.” He said the second French case had occurred because the first patient presented “quite atypical” symptoms and had not been isolated immediately. Health officials screened 124 people who had come into contact with him and carried out laboratory tests on at least five, including three medical staff. All came back negative except the fellow patient, who had been in “close and prolonged contact” when they shared a hospital room in nearby Valenciennes between April 27 and 29, the ministry said. French authorities are now broadening the screening effort to include anyone who has been in contact with the second confirmed case. –Reuters

Nightmare scenario if virus goes airborne: World Health Organization (WHO) officials said on Sunday it seemed likely a new coronavirus that has killed at least 18 people in the Middle East and Europe could be passed between humans, but only after prolonged contact. A virus from the same family triggered the outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that swept the world after emerging in Asia and killed 775 people in 2003. On Sunday French authorities announced that a second man had been diagnosed with the disease after sharing a hospital room with France’s only other sufferer. WHO Assistant Director-General Keiji Fukuda told reporters in Saudi Arabia, the site of the largest cluster of infections, there was no evidence so far the virus was able to sustain “generalized transmission in communities” – a scenario that would raise the specter of a pandemic. But he added: “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. There is a need for countries to … increase levels of awareness,” he said. A public health expert who declined to be identified, said “close contact” meant being in the same small, enclosed space with an infected person for a prolonged period. The virus has a mortality rate of 52%. The virus first emerged in the Gulf last year, but deaths have also been recorded in Britain and France of people who had recently been in the Middle East. A total of 34 cases worldwide have been confirmed by blood tests so far. Saudi Deputy Health Minister for Public Health Ziad Memish told reporters that, of 15 confirmed cases in the most recent outbreak, in al-Ahsa district of Eastern Province, nine had died, two more than previously reported. Saudi Arabia’s Health Ministry said in a statement the country had had 24 confirmed cases since last summer, of whom 15 had died. Fukuda said he was not sure if the two newly reported Saudi deaths were included in the numbers confirmed by the WHO. –NBC