French health authorities have confirmed the first documented human infection with Shamonda virus, a midge-borne livestock virus that spread through European cattle herds this summer. The patient was severely immunocompromised, was being treated for a serious illness in Lyon, and died in early October, the Associated Press reported. Investigators have not determined whether the virus caused or contributed to the death, or how the patient was infected.
For American households, the questions are narrow: Can people catch it? Could it reach U.S. farms? Are the milk and meat at the grocery store safe? Based on current evidence, French authorities have identified no health risk to the general population, and no detection in the United States has been reported.
