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France on Thursday reported the first human case of the Shamonda virus usually found in livestock in a patient who later died, with authorities adding there was no risk to the general population at this stage.
It is suspected that the victim was bitten by a midge carrying the virus in eastern France where it had circulated among animals this spring and summer, the government said in a statement.
The UN’s World Health Organization said it was in contact with French authorities about the outbreak.
The patient died in early October and had been receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection than the general population, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a statement.
The victim was a man in 60s living in the Lyon area, local newspaper Le Progres reported.
“Based on current information and knowledge of the transmission of closely related viruses, this is an isolated human case and it is unlikely to lead to wider spread at this time,” said the Geneva-based WHO, which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies.
The French government also said no health risk to the general population had been identified.
Shamonda is transmitted by biting midges and most commonly found in cattle, though it has also been found in horses, alpaca, sheep and goats, according to the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH).
It is not classified as a disease under the EU Animal Health Law and 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 tests on sick cattle in southern Germany, Switzerland and eastern France.
France’s weekly animal health surveillance bulletin said it had also been detected in Austria, Belgium, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, and the UK’s Jersey.
The virus has several effects on animals, with affected cattle showing diarrhea, weakness, loss of appetite and, less often, fever, French animal health authorities said. A study of nine French dairy farms found milk production fell by up to 75%.