France reports first human Shamonda virus case

PARIS:  French ​health authorities said they had detected the Shamonda virus usually affecting livestock in a human for the first ⁠time in a patient who ⁠later died, while adding that they saw no risk to the general ‌population at this stage.
Shamonda ​virus is ⁠an insect-borne Orthobunyavirus ​primarily affecting livestock, particularly cattle, ‌and transmitted by biting midges.
First identified ​in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, it has since been detected sporadically in animals in Africa and Japan. ‌It has been spreading among several ​European countries this year.
The virus ​had ‌until ⁠now been considered non-transmissible to humans, the French government said.
The ​leading hypothesis is ⁠that the ​patient may have been infected in eastern France, where the virus had been circulating among ​animals during spring and ​summer 2026.