The first known human case of the Shamonda virus was reported by French authorities this month. The patient, a man in his 60s who had leukemia, died on October 9, just 16 days after showing neurological symptoms, including blindness and confusion. The incident was described in a report released on October 22 in the journal Eurosurveillance.
In a statement translated by Smithsonian magazine, French health officials called it an exceptional case in a severely immunocompromised patient. They stressed that there is no risk to the public based on what is known about the Shamonda virus, which typically infects livestock. However, the fact that a human was infected suggests that scientists still have a lot to learn about the disease and how it affects the body.
Shamonda virus belongs to a family of viruses called orthobunyaviruses, and it’s primarily transmitted through tiny flies called midges, says Krispin Hajkowicz, an infectious-disease researcher at the University of Queensland in Australia, to Nature’s Rachel Fieldhouse. The pathogen commonly affects cattle, though infections have also been detected in sheep, horses, goats and alpacas. The virus was first detected in cows in Nigeria in 1965, and since then has been detected in other parts of Africa and in Japan.
The virus was found in Europe for the first time this past summer, when officials reported cases in German and Swiss cattle, per the World Health Organization. It rapidly made its way through dairy cows and horses in Western Europe, including Austria, Belgium and France. Symptoms in animals include fever, diarrhea and reduced milk production.
In more serious cases, it can also cause reproduction issues, like stillbirths and fetal malformations. Neurological conditions have also been reported in some horses, according to the World Organization for Animal Health, although this symptom is rare. There are currently no treatments or vaccines for Shamonda virus.
Roughly six in ten known infectious diseases in humans can be spread from animals, and three in four new or emerging infectious diseases that affect people come in animals, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Scientists still aren’t sure. The patient lived in a rural area about an hour from Lyon, a city in eastern France, a region where Shamonda had been detected in cattle.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
