A disease normally only ever found in animals has been detected in humans for the first time, with the first known case of the Shamonda virus (Shav) being identified in a French patient who died in early October, reports the BBC.
Shamonda belongs to the same group as Schmallenberg virus, which causes reproductive disorders in livestock.
Health officials said it was an “exceptional case in a severely immunocompromised patient” but that there was currently no risk to the public.
Shav primarily affects cattle and can be spread by infected midges. Cases have also occurred in sheep, goats, alpacas and horses, but infections in people were previously unheard of.
The WHO and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said they were monitoring the situation, with French officials still investigating how the virus had spread to a human.
It is suspected the patient was infected through a midge bite in eastern France, the country’s Health and Agriculture Ministries said, where cases were first identified in animals in the spring.
The patient was being treated for a serious illness in a Lyon hospital and experienced neurological complications thought to have been “very likely linked” to the virus, based on initial findings.
The statement stressed that the patient’s immune system was weakened, leaving him more vulnerable to getting ill.
“Until now, the Shamonda virus was considered non-transmissible to humans,” it noted, having only been identified in animals “despite decades of circulation in Africa and Asia”.
The WHO confirmed this was the first documented human case, but probably an isolated occurrence.
The ECDC said it was working with French and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications.
Professor Alain Kohl, Professor of Virology and Emerging Infectious Diseases, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), told Science Media Centre that Shamonda, which is an orthobunyavirus “sadly reminds specialists of Cristoli virus- a further orthobunyavirus linked to a human death in France in 2019”.
Shamonda was initially detected in cattle in Nigeria in 1965, reports Reuters. After first being identified in Europe in late July this year, by 20 October cases had been reported in more than a dozen European countries including in top cattle breeders France, Germany, Spain and Ireland.
France said the virus had probably been circulating in the country since the spring.
In animals, symptoms include fever, diarrhoea and reduced milk production. More serious complications include abortions and severe foetal malformations. Neurological disorders have also been reported in some horses.
The World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) said the long-term impact of the European variants remains uncertain.
Shamonda is not a disease listed by the WOAH and countries are therefore not required to notify that agency of cases under its disease-specific reporting obligations.
Nor is it listed under the European Union’s Animal Health Law framework, meaning it is not subject to EU disease-specific mandatory surveillance.
Because of this, available data may not provide a complete picture of its spread.
BBC article – First human case of Shamonda virus detected in France, officials say (Open access)
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