France has logged an unsettling first: a human infection with a virus previously seen only in farm animals. Health authorities say the patient, who died earlier this month, was infected with the Shamonda virus (SHAV), a type of Orthobunyavirus spread by biting midges, likely in eastern France, where it circulated among livestock this spring and summer. Health officials say the patient, undergoing treatment for a serious illness, was "severely immunocompromised," making them more vulnerable to infection than the general public, per the BBC. Though health officials say the patient's neurological complications are "very likely linked" to the infection, investigators have not yet determined whether SHAV played a role in the death.
Long known in cattle, the virus previously considered non-transmissible to humans circulated in livestock in Africa and Asia for decades before the first cases were reported in Europe in late July, per the BBC. SHAV has since been detected in herds in 14 countries across western Europe, resulting in fever, diarrhea, and lower milk production, reports France 24. The virus, with no commercial vaccine available, has also been found in horses, alpaca, sheep, and goats, per Reuters. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control says it is "carefully monitoring the situation" while French health authorities stress they've identified "no health risk to the general public."
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