ECDC reports first human case of Shamonda virus

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) announced on 22 October that the world's first known human infection with Shamonda virus had been identified in France.

The ECDC said it was closely monitoring the unprecedented case, which involved a patient receiving treatment for a serious underlying illness at Hospices Civils de Lyon.

The patient developed neurological complications that French health authorities consider highly likely to have been linked to the infection. Investigations are continuing to determine the virus's contribution to the patient's death.

Authorities suspect the infection was acquired through the bite of an infected Culicoides midge in eastern France, where the virus had been circulating among livestock.

Shamonda virus primarily affects cattle and has occasionally infected other livestock. Despite decades of circulation in Africa and Asia, no human infections had previously been documented.

The case follows the virus's emergence in European farm animals during summer 2026. It has since been detected in livestock across more than a dozen European countries, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, as well as Jersey.

The ECDC is working with French authorities and European partners to assess potential public health implications, strengthen laboratory testing and identify any additional cases.

The ECDC stress that this remains an exceptional case involving a particularly vulnerable patient, with no risk to the general population identified based on current knowledge.