RismadarVoice Reporters
October 22, 2026
French health authorities have confirmed the world’s first documented human infection with the Shamonda virus after a severely immunocompromised patient died while receiving treatment for a serious illness.
The development was announced on Thursday, October 22, in a joint statement by France’s health and agriculture ministries.
According to the authorities, the patient was undergoing treatment at the Hospices Civils de Lyon and died in early October.
Although investigations suggest that the virus may have contributed to neurological complications experienced before the patient’s death, officials have not established whether the infection directly caused the death.
The ministries described the development as an exceptional case involving an individual whose immune system was severely weakened.
Preliminary investigations suggest that the patient may have contracted the virus through the bite of an infected Culicoides midge in eastern France, where the pathogen circulated among livestock during the spring and summer.
However, the precise circumstances surrounding the infection remain under investigation.
The Shamonda virus belongs to the Orthobunyavirus group and is primarily transmitted among animals through the bites of infected midges.
The pathogen was first identified in cattle in Nigeria during the 1960s and has subsequently been detected in animals across parts of Africa and Asia.
Until the latest development, no human infection had been documented despite decades of the virus’s circulation among animals.
The virus was detected in European livestock for the first time during the summer of 2026, with affected animals exhibiting symptoms including fever, diarrhoea and reduced milk production.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) confirmed that the virus had been identified in farm animals across several European countries, including France, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
Following the first reported human infection, the ECDC announced that it was working with French authorities and European partners to investigate the potential public health implications.
The agency is also supporting efforts to strengthen laboratory testing and identify any additional infections.
French authorities said the World Health Organisation and relevant European health institutions had been notified.
Despite the development, officials stressed that available scientific evidence had not identified a health risk to the general population.
Clinical, biological and epidemiological investigations are continuing to determine how the patient became infected and whether the virus contributed to the death.
Health authorities maintained that the unusual nature of the case required further scientific assessment rather than assumptions about widespread human transmission.
