FRANCE DETECTS FIRST HUMAN SHAMONDA VIRUS INFECTION

French health authorities said they detected Shamonda virus in a man who died in early October, in the first documented human infection. The man had been receiving treatment for a serious illness at a hospice in Lyon. France’s agricultural department said initial investigations suggested that cerebral complications before his death were “very likely” linked to the infection. Dr Ben Brennan, of the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, said “we do not yet know whether Shamonda virus contributed to their death”.

Biting midges transmit Shamonda virus among livestock, particularly cattle. Researchers first identified the virus in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, and have since detected it in animals in Africa and Japan. European farm animals showed clinical signs from June, and authorities identified the virus in late July. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said animal detections included Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and Jersey. The UK’s Animal and Plant Health Agency lists fever, diarrhoea, lethargy, reduced milk production and abortions among reported effects in infected cattle.

French authorities are investigating how the man contracted the virus; their leading hypothesis places the infection in eastern France, where it circulated among animals. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said it was “carefully monitoring the situation” and working with French authorities and European partners. It said the man’s serious illness made him more susceptible to infection and complications than the general population. French authorities said they saw no risk to the wider public at this stage.