France on Thursday reported the first human case of the Shamonda virus, which is usually found in livestock, in a patient who later died. Authorities said there was no risk to the general population at this stage, as reported by Reuters.
French health authorities confirmed the infection in a patient in Lyon who died in early October.
The patient was severely immunocompromised and was being treated for a serious illness at the Hospices Civils de Lyon.
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The Shamonda virus had previously been considered non-transmissible to humans, the Health Ministry said, so the case is the first documented and reported detection of the virus in a human.
"The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is carefully monitoring the situation after the French authorities announced the first ever reported human infection with Shamonda virus, a disease that has until now only affected animals," the Stockholm-based ECDC said in a statement. "ECDC is in contact with the French authorities and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications."
What Is The Shamonda Virus?
The Shamonda virus is transmitted by biting midges and is most commonly found in cattle, it has also been found in horses, alpacas, sheep and goats.
It was first detected in Nigeria in the mid-1960s and has since been reported sporadically in cattle in West, East and southern Africa and in Japan.
A scientific preprint describes it as a single-stranded RNA virus in the family Peribunyaviridae, order Bunyavirales, and the Simbu serogroup.
The virus was first isolated in Nigeria in the 1960s from cattle and Culicoides-biting midges.
How It Reached Europe
The virus was detected in Europe for the first time this summer, including on cattle farms in France.
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Sporadic infections in small ruminants and horses were also reported in France this summer.
According to a report, the virus has also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK's Jersey.
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