For six decades the Shamonda virus was considered a problem for farmers, not doctors. That changed on Thursday, when French health and agriculture officials disclosed that a patient treated in Lyon had carried the bug, the first human infection ever documented anywhere.
The patient, whose immune system was severely weakened by another serious illness, died at the start of October. Investigators say brain complications seen before his death were very likely tied to the virus, but they have not yet established whether it killed him or merely added to his decline. Local media reported he was a man in his sixties from the Ain area; authorities have not confirmed that.
How did he catch it? The working theory is a bite from a Culicoides midge, a tiny insect, somewhere in eastern France. Cattle there were infected this spring and summer. The virus, an orthobunyavirus first isolated in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, had only turned up sporadically in African and Japanese herds until it reached Europe in late July. Since then it has been found on farms in a dozen countries, from Ireland and Portugal to Germany and Austria.
Officials were quick to stress that ordinary people face “no health risk” at this stage. Europe’s disease agency ECDC called the case as exceptional and noted that most midge species are winding down as autumn temperatures fall.
Still, the case is being taken seriously. The World Health Organization has been notified, and teams covering human, animal and environmental health are working together on the inquiry. The ECDC says it will help member states expand laboratory testing so that any further infections are spotted quickly.
