- TOURCOING, France (Reuters)
- A French doctor was critically ill on Tuesday with a suspected case of
a virus that has killed 23 people worldwide, after visiting the Vietnam
hospital where the mystery illness was first identified.
-
- "His condition is stable but he is in danger. We
will need to wait four or five days before we can come to a decision,"
hospital specialist Yves Mouton told a news conference.
-
- French authorities were contacting passengers who were
on the man's flight from Hanoi, which landed in Paris on Sunday morning,
as well as a taxi driver who drove him from the airport to his home near
the northern city of Lille.
-
- The 65-year-old heart specialist flew to Hanoi last month
to work in a hospital where a Vietnamese nurse and a French doctor died
from severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) after treating a U.S. businessman.
-
- The deadly disease is believed to have surfaced in China
late last year before showing up in Hong Kong, Singapore, Vietnam, Canada
and Germany in recent weeks, killing 23 people worldwide and infecting
hundreds.
-
- Shortly after his return on Sunday, the Frenchman was
admitted with breathing problems to a hospital in Tourcoing, near Lille.
By Tuesday he was on a respirator in a serious condition, hospital doctors
said.
-
- "(We) believe this is a case of SARS," the
French Health Ministry said in a statement. Hong Kong now has 290 infected,
the newest victims having caught the virus from an infected man on a flight
to Beijing.
-
- In Vietnam, four people have died and 35 are battling
the disease. Beijing may be looking at 100 cases, and Singapore has ordered
740 people who may be at risk into quarantine.
-
- In France, 11 people with suspicious symptoms were under
observation in hospitals by Tuesday, the Health Ministry said. Suspected
cases have also been reported in the United States, Britain, Australia,
Japan and Macau.
-
- The French heart specialist was in contact with the entire
team treating the disease in Hanoi, and in particular with the two other
doctors who succumbed to the fast-spreading virus.
-
- Mouton noted the disease could only be caught by "prolonged
contact" with an infected person. "This is why we are looking
for people who were sitting near the cardiologist in the plane."
-
- Tourcoing hospital has evacuated half its medical staff
to avoid the disease spreading further.
-
- World Health Organization scientists trying to pin down
the cause of the illness believe they have identified two viruses as "very
strong contenders."
-
- Experts in Hong Kong and Germany have said they think
it is caused by a new virus from the paramyxovirus family, a large group
of microbes that includes the germs behind measles, mumps and respiratory
infections.
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