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The 69-year-old man who has the extremely dangerous MERS coronavirus is suffering from acute respiratory distress syndrome and he has been admitted to the intensive care unit of Sotiria hospital for lung diseases. The official opinion of the medical team defines his condition as critical.

Meanwhile, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has found the taxi driver who had picked up the sick man from Athens "Eleftherios Venizelos" airport and taken him to Keratsini suburb in Piraeus on Maundy Thursday. He has been found with three days’ delay as he had turned off his phone during the Easter holidays.

The driver has undergone a detailed medical examination in order to determine whether he is infected with the virus. He has had no symptoms so far.

The wife of the 69-year-old patient, who is not infected with the virus, is under quarantine. The same measure is in force for the persons who were very close to the man during the Jeddah - Athens flight. A total of about 100 people are undergoing tests, 25 of whom had left the plane along with him in Athens.

Meanwhile, 13 new cases of people infected with the virus have been detected in Saudi Arabia and three of those who had been infected earlier have lost their lives. According to the local Ministry of Health, MERS has caused the death of 76 people but its spread has not yet acquired epidemic proportions.

MERS is a new strain of the coronaviruses group and in 2012 it was found to be pathogenic for humans. Coronaviruses can cause the common cold as well as the severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). According to experts, the new virus has no direct relationship with any of the other known coronaviruses but it is accompanied by a disease that is the cause of a high number of deaths.

By 17 April, the World Health Organization had received reports on 243 cases of MERS confirmed in laboratory conditions. 93 of those infected had lost their lives. The last case reported by this date was related to a person travelling from Jeddah to Malaysia.

The case of the Greek national is the 10th one established in Europe. So far, the MERS coronavirus has been detected in five European countries, namely Britain, Germany, France, Italy and Greece.

In the cases of the disease confirmed to date, the patients were mostly suffering from acute respiratory infections accompanied by fever, cough and shortness of breath. Critical for interrupting the spread of the coronavirus in a hospital environment is the implementation of strict infection control.

The precautions recommended by the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention are identical to those applied in the cases of other viral respiratory infections, namely avoiding contact with people who have symptoms of the disease (coughing and sneezing) and have recently travelled to high-risk areas such as the Arabian Peninsula. It is especially important for those people who return from the region and have these symptoms to undergo a medical examination of their condition within 14 days after returning.