Chamunda virus spreads in Europe and the first human infection occurs in France

Listen to the article. The audio text is automated, generated by an automated system

French health authorities announced that they had detected the first human infection with the Chamunda virus, which usually infects livestock, in a patient with a severely weakened immune system who died earlier this month, stressing that they had not identified any health risk to the general public at the present time, according to Agence France-Presse.

The French Ministries of Health and Agriculture explained in a joint statement that human infection appears to be an exceptional case involving an immunocompromised patient who was hospitalized due to a serious medical condition, noting that the virus has not been discovered in humans before despite its spread in Africa and Asia for decades. At this stage of the investigation, it is believed that the patient was infected with a fly bite in eastern France, where the virus was spreading among animals during the spring and summer, while preliminary results indicate that the neurological complications that appeared before his death are likely related to the infection, at a time when clinical, biological and epidemiological investigations are still ongoing.

Chamunda belongs to the group of Orthoponia viruses that are usually transmitted to animals via small biting insects. It was first observed in Nigeria in the mid-1960s, then recorded in livestock in several African regions and in Japan, before it appeared in Europe at the end of last July, including livestock farms in France.

Clinical signs appeared in animals since last June, before the virus was identified in late July, and it was then detected in agricultural animals in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, in addition to Jersey. The activity of most types of biting flies in Europe declines as temperatures drop, while the type involved in transmission in this case is still unknown, according to the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control.

The virus is classified within the genus Orthoponia in the family Periboniaviridae, and within the Sympo serogroup that includes Schmallenberg virus. The 2026 outbreaks in Europe have been shown to be caused by two variants: Chamunda european 1 and Chamunda european 2. It is most often reported in cattle, with cases in horses, sheep, and goats, and its signs include fever, diarrhea, decreased milk production, abortion, and fetal abnormalities, while neurological disorders have been reported to a lesser extent in some cases. Horses. It is currently understood that it is transmitted through fly bites, and there is no evidence of direct transmission between animals, despite reports of vertical transmission from mother to fetus, and there is no commercial vaccine available against it, according to the World Organization for Animal Health.

Director-General of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, described the incident as the first documented case of human infection with the virus, explaining that the patient was in an area where the virus is spreading among animals and where the colicoides fly is present, and that the organization is in contact with the French authorities, who are collecting information to understand the source of the infection, its possible methods of transmission, and any risk to public health, with the need for additional studies to fully understand transmission, in a post on the X platform.

For his part, Tom Solomon, head of the Pandemic Institute in Britain, said that much is still unknown about the virus, including whether healthy people are infected without symptoms, what their usual symptoms are, and how often it may cause serious illness, stressing that there is no reason for public concern, and that the situation reinforces the importance of monitoring emerging infections, especially those that may affect the brain.