German dies of complications from MERS infection

 A 65-year-old German man died this month after contracting MERS during a trip to Abu Dhabi, in the first death linked to the virus in Europe this year, authorities said on Tuesday.

The man died in the western town of Ostercappeln on June 6 of an acute lung ailment that came as a complication from the MERS virus, the health ministry of Lower Saxony state said. German authorities said they had no indication that the virus had spread and European health officials said the risk of an outbreak in Europe remained low.

It is believed the patient was infected with the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) during a visit to a livestock market in the United Arab Emirates, as camels are thought to carry the virus. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Stockholm said that the German case was the first MERS infection imported into the European Union so far this year, following one in the second half of 2014. “The fact that this patient has now died does not change our risk assessment for Europe. The risk to the EU posed by the outbreak of MERS-CoV remains low,” spokesman <g data-gr-id="16">Romit</g> Jain said.