France has detected its first human case of the Shamonda virus, which primarily affects livestock, in a severely immunocompromised patient who died earlier this month.
The country’s health and agriculture ministries said in a joint statement on Thursday that no risk to the general public had been identified at the time.
The ministries described the infection as an exceptional case involving a severely immunocompromised patient who had been hospitalised for a serious medical condition.
“Despite circulating in Africa and Asia for several decades, the Shamonda virus has never previously been detected in humans,” the statement said.
The virus belongs to the Orthobunyavirus group and is typically transmitted to animals through the bites of small insects.
According to the ministries, preliminary findings suggest the patient contracted the virus after being bitten by a midge in eastern France, where the virus had circulated among animals during the spring and summer.
The ministries added that the neurological complications the patient experienced before death were likely linked to the infection, although clinical, biological and epidemiological investigations were still ongoing.
First detected in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, the virus has since been reported in cattle in several parts of Africa and in Japan.
It was detected in Europe for the first time at the end of July, including on cattle farms in France. According to an epidemiological bulletin from France’s national animal health research institute, the virus has now been identified in 14 Western European countries.
Cattle are considered the virus’s main animal hosts, although sporadic infections in smaller livestock and horses were also identified in France during the summer.
In cattle, the main symptoms include acute diarrhoea, fever, lethargy and reduced milk production.
Investigations into the human case are continuing, while the World Health Organisation and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have been notified.
