A man has died in France after contracting Shamonda virus, a disease spread by midges that has never before been detected in humans. The patient, who died in early October, was already severely immunocompromised, and French authorities have said there is currently no risk to the wider public.
The virus, which causes infection in livestock, had until now been considered non-transmissible to humans. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said it was carefully monitoring the situation.
ECDC Response and Investigation
In a statement, the ECDC said: “ECDC is in contact with the French authorities and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications of this first human infection.” It added that the only infection so far has been in a patient receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection and complications than the general population.
The unnamed man died in early October, and investigations are underway to determine how he contracted the virus.
Spread in Farm Animals
Shamonda virus has been found in European farm animals since the summer. Clinical signs in animals were reported from June, and the virus was identified in late July. The ECDC said it has since been detected in farm animals in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, and Switzerland, as well as Jersey.
Expert Commentary
Dr Ben Brennan, group leader and senior lecturer at the MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research, called the case “an important scientific finding” but stressed the need for perspective. He said: “The patient had a serious underlying illness that left them particularly vulnerable to infections, and we do not yet know whether Shamonda virus contributed to their death.” He added that finding a virus in a severely immunocompromised patient does not necessarily mean it poses a significant risk to otherwise healthy individuals, and that based on current information, there is no reason for the general UK public to be unduly concerned.
Paul Hunter, professor of medicine at the University of East Anglia (UEA), noted that the disease is primarily a problem in less economically developed countries, so it is hard to know for certain whether other human cases have occurred. He said severely immunocompromised people can be susceptible to infections that would not cause problems in others. “The risk that this virus goes on to cause more widespread problems is very small, but if I were involved in the investigation, I would want to check contacts to make sure no one else has picked it up,” he added.
