French doctor: Virus from China seems less serious than SARS

Paris, Jan 25 (AP) le doctor treating two Paris hospital patients for new virus in China said Saturday that illness appears less serious than comparable outbreaks of past and that chance of a European epidemic appears weak at this st.

French officials on Friday reported three confirmed cases of newly identified coronavirus in France, first ones in Europe. third patient is at a hospital in Bordeaux. he of France's health department, Jerome Salomon, said Saturday evening that all three are doing “very well.”

Still, France remained concerned about its citizens in Wuhan, w-locked down Chinese city where outbreak began. France's Foreign Ministry said Saturday that French and Chinese officials were studying “eventual options that would allow our nationals who wish to leave.” French consulate in Wuhan is in constant contact with citizens, Foreign Ministry said, without saying how many of m are in city.

Starting Sunday, medical teams will be at France's airports, tably Paris' Charles de Gaulle, to help passengers arriving from various Chinese cities with questions, concerns or medical needs, health chief Salomon said.

virus so far has infected more than 1,200 people and killed at least 41. vast majority of infections and all deaths have been in mainland China.

Dr Yazdan Yazdanpaneh said two patients at Paris' Bichat-Claude Bernard Hospital are a couple from Wuhan, where viral respiratory illness first was detected.

31-year-old man and 30-year-old woman arrived in France on Jan. 18 without symptoms, but one developed symptoms next day and or soon followed, doctor said.

two are staying in separate, specially equipped rooms and are doing well, physically and psychologically, Yazdanpaneh said. He could t speculate when y might be released from hospital. Ways in which virus can be transmitted remain unclear.

Yazdanpaneh, a leing French expert who hes Bichat's infectious diseases unit, said that cases imported from China were “t a surprise” and that France h prepared, including by developing a test that provides rapid results for suspected cases.

On or hand, he said, chance of “an epidemic in France or in Europe is weak, extremely weak.” “This illness is a lot less serious - and we don't say this based on two patients, but talking to our international colleagues - than, for example, SARS,” Yazdanpaneh said, referring to 2002 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome that killed hundreds of people.

mortality rate for viral illness identified in China last month is currently thought to be less than 5%, whereas it was double that for SARS, he said.

He said mers coronavirus in Saudi Arabia also appears more serious than virus in China.

man and woman receiving care in Paris were taken to Bichat on Friday morning and tests for coronavirus were kwn to be positive by evening, Yazdanpaneh said.

two rooms where y are being cared for are so-called negative pressure rooms that air enters but cant escape to guard against transmission. Bichat has seven such rooms. (AP)

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