France on Thursday reported the first human case of the Shamonda virus usually found in livestock, in a hospital patient who died, although authorities added there was no risk to the general population.
It is suspected that the victim was bitten by a midge carrying the virus in eastern France where it had circulated among animals in the spring and summer, the government said in a statement.
The man had been hospitalized in Lyon for an unrelated serious illness, a French Health Ministry official told reporters.
The victim was aged around sixty and lived in the Lyon region, reports the local newspaper Le Progrès.
The World Health Organization said it was in contact with French authorities about the outbreak.
“Based on current information and knowledge of the transmission of closely related viruses, this is an isolated human case and is unlikely to lead to wider spread at this time,” said the Geneva-based WHO, which coordinates responses to international public health problems and emergencies.
“We are clearly dealing with an unprecedented case from a scientific and virological point of view. It is linked to the very weakened immune system of this man,” Grégory Emery, director of public health, told the press.
“From a medical and public health point of view, there is neither alert nor crisis,” he added.
Shamonda spreads to animals in Europe
Shamonda is transmitted by biting midges and is most commonly found in cattle, although it has also been found in horses, alpacas, sheep and goats, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.
No cases of livestock-to-human or human-to-human transmission have been reported, Emery said.
The virus is not classified as a disease under European animal health legislation and is not subject to official surveillance or control measures.
Identified in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, Shamonda was first confirmed in Europe in late July after genomic testing of diseased cattle in southern Germany, Switzerland and eastern France.
France’s weekly animal health surveillance bulletin says it has also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and Jersey.
The virus has several effects on animals, with infected cattle showing diarrhea, weakness, loss of appetite and, more rarely, fever, French animal health authorities said. A study of nine French dairy farms found that milk production fell by up to 75%.
Gn Health
