France, a man died from the Shamonda virus: it is the first human case

A Shamonda-type virus, transmitted by insects and so far found only in farm animals, has been detected for the first time in a human being in France: this is what the Ministries of Health and Agriculture of Paris reported in a joint statement, specifying that the infected person was "a severely immunosuppressed patient, who died at the beginning of October".

An exceptional case

"Despite the fact that the Shamonda virus has been circulating for several decades in Africa and Asia, no case has ever been documented in humans until now. It is therefore an exceptional event, which occurred in a highly immunosuppressed patient", hospitalized in Lyon for a serious pathology and "died at the beginning of October", specify the French authorities, underlining that at the moment, the hypothesis is that of "contamination through the bite of a midge of the Culicoides genus in eastern France, an area in which, during the spring and summer, the circulation of the virus among animals was reported."

No risk to the population

According to the findings, "the brain complications found in the immunosuppressed patient before death would, in all likelihood, be attributable to the Shamonda virus infection. However, they assure in Paris, beyond this specific case, "in light of the knowledge currently available on this virus, no health risk for the general population has currently been identified".