French agriculture and health officials reported Thursday the first human infection and death from the Shamonda virus, which had only been found in livestock.
The infected person died earlier this month while being treated at a hospital in the Lyon metropolitan area, about 240 miles southeast of Paris, the French Ministry of Health said. The person had a compromised immune system and showed cerebral problems.
The Health Ministry did not identify the person.
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The disease was first detected in Nigeria in the 1960s and has been known to occur primarily among cattle in Africa and Japan. It was first detected in France this summer, the French Ministry of Agriculture said.
Other parts of Europe where Shamonda was confirmed this summer include Switzerland, which borders the French region where Lyon is located, and the German state of Baden-Wurttemberg, which borders Switzerland to the north, according to a journal article on the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website.
Officials thought that the disease was only transmissible between animals. French officials said the current hypothesis is that the person was infected by a biting midge in the east of France where the disease was occurring in animals.
French officials said that “based on current knowledge about this virus, no health risk to the general population has been identified to date,” as translated from French.
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