France Detects Two MERS Virus Cases Among Tour Group

French authorities have isolated two people infected with the virus that causes Middle Eastern respiratory syndrome (MERS) who were among a tour group visiting the region, the health ministry said.

MERS is a more deadly but less contagious variation of the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) that spread from China in the early 2000s.

The MERS coronavirus — which causes the disease — is believed to come from bats originally, but camels normally infect humans.

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The two people now in a “stable” condition in a French hospital had been on “a joint trip to the Arabian Peninsula,” the health ministry said in a statement released late Wednesday.

“Management measures have been put in place to limit the risk of transmission of the virus,” it added, and no secondary cases had been found. Other people in the tour group are also being monitored.

“All measures have been put in place to limit the risk of transmission of the virus to the patients’ entourage and to healthcare staff,” the ministry added.

These measures included “contact tracing, barrier gestures, screening, isolation and procedures to follow in case of the appearance of symptoms, even moderate ones,” it said.

MERS has killed 958 people from 2,640 reported cases between 2012 and November this year, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. These were mostly in Saudi Arabia.

The disease causes symptoms similar to Covid-19 — fever, coughing and breathing difficulties.

The ministry said that 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.