French health authorities announced Thursday the first documented human infection with the Shamonda virus, previously known to affect livestock, after detecting it in a severely immunocompromised patient who died in early October.
The patient was hospitalized in Lyon for a serious illness, according to a joint statement from the French health and agriculture ministries.
Authorities believe the infection was transmitted through the bite of a Culicoides midge in eastern France, where the virus circulated among farm animals during the spring and summer.
Investigators said neurological complications observed before the patient’s death were very likely linked to the infection, although clinical and epidemiological investigations remain underway.
Shamonda virus, first detected in Nigeria in the 1960s, has circulated among livestock in Africa and Asia for decades without previously documented human infections.
French officials said there was currently no identified health risk to the general population. The World Health Organization and European disease control authorities have been notified.
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