SHAMONDA VIRUS POSES NO BROADER THREAT TO EUROPE'S POPULATION

STOCKHOLM, OCTOBER 23 /SRNA/ – The Shamonda virus does not currently pose a wider threat to Europe's population, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control said, while urging European health authorities to remain vigilant after the infection was confirmed in a man in France.

Although it called for caution, the agency stressed that there was no need to panic while an investigation into the death of the infected patient was underway, Euronews reported.

French authorities confirmed the infection in a patient in Lyon yesterday. The patient died in early October, marking the first time the virus, previously detected only in animals, has been confirmed in a human.

Tamas Bakonyi, a senior expert at the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control specializing in diseases transmitted by insects and other animals, zoonotic diseases, and human, animal and environmental health, said the patient had leukemia and was severely immunocompromised, making him more susceptible to infection by the virus.

Although the possibility of human-to-human transmission could not be ruled out, Bakonyi said, this did not mean there was reason to panic.

"Research in France showed that a fairly long period had passed during which the patient was already carrying the virus, after which he developed encephalitis and died," Bakonyi said.

Although the virus had not previously been detected in humans, Bakonyi said experts and health institutions across Europe were already investigating whether it could cause infections in people.

"This is a warning, but we have encountered this before," Bakonyi said, adding that millions of people had lived in areas where the virus was present and that it had never been documented as a problem.

The Shamonda virus belongs to a group of viruses transmitted by small insects known as biting midges.

It was first discovered in Nigeria in the mid-1960s and has since been detected sporadically in cattle in western, eastern and southern Africa, as well as in Japan.

This summer, it was also detected in western Europe. Cases have been reported in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, as well as on the island of Jersey