French authorities have isolated two people infected with the virus that causes Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS).
These people were part of a tourist group visiting the Arabian Peninsula, according to the Ministry of Health.
MERS is a deadlier but less contagious variant of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), which spread from China in the early 2000s.
The MERS coronavirus, responsible for the disease, is believed to originate in bats, but is normally transmitted to humans through camels.
The two people, currently in stable condition in a French hospital, were traveling together, as stated in a statement from the Ministry of Health on Wednesday evening.
“Management measures have been adopted to limit the risk of virus transmission,” he added, and no secondary cases have been found. Other people in the tour group are also being monitored.
“All measures have been adopted to limit the risk of transmission of the virus to the patients’ environment and to healthcare personnel,” the ministry added.
These measures include “contact tracing, barrier gestures, screening, isolation and procedures to follow in the event of the appearance of symptoms, even moderate ones,” he said.
MERS has killed 958 people out of 2,640 cases reported between 2012 and November this year, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control. Most of them were in Saudi Arabia.
The disease causes symptoms similar to those of Covid-19: fever, cough and breathing difficulties.
The ministry said human transmission was “rare” but “possible through direct or indirect contact, through respiratory droplets and occasionally through the air.”
France had previously reported two cases, in 2013, the ministry said.
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