A second case of the MERS coronavirus ahs been reported in Athens, with the patient currently being treated in the negative pressure chamber at the “Sotiria” hospital, after being transferred to the “Ippokratio” hospital.
The first reported case of the lethal virus involved a Greek man permanently residing in Saudi Arabia, who visited Athens on Good Thursday. While not easily transmittable amongst humans, the coronavirus is much more lethal than the SARS virus which it is related to and has a rather high mortality rate, killing about 65% of patients.
So far there have been about 60 reported cases of the MERS coronavirus in 9 countries in the Middle East and Europe, which have resulted in 38 deaths.
