France reports first-ever human case of Shamonda virus, says no public health risk

France has reported the first recorded human case of the Shamonda virus, a livestock pathogen previously considered non-transmissible to humans, in a joint statement by the health and agriculture ministries on Thursday.

The ministries said the patient was severely immunocompromised, had been hospitalised for a serious medical condition, and died earlier this month. The infection was described as “an exceptional case involving a severely immunocompromised patient”, and the statement said there was “no health risk to the general public identified at this time”.

Investigators believe the patient contracted the virus through the bite of a midge in eastern France, where it was circulating in animals during the spring and summer. “The neurological complications observed in the immunocompromised patient prior to his death are very likely linked to infection with the Shamonda virus,” the ministries said, citing preliminary findings, adding that “clinical, biological and epidemiological investigations are still ongoing”.

“Despite circulating in Africa and Asia for several decades, the Shamonda virus has never previously been detected in humans,” the ministries said. The virus belongs to the Orthobunyavirus group and is typically transmitted to animals by small biting insects. First identified in Nigeria in the mid-1960s and reported since in cattle in parts of Africa and Japan, it was detected in Europe for the first time at the end of July, including on cattle farms in France, and has now reached 14 western European countries. The World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control have been notified.