A new zoonotic disease on the horizon? Last week, on October 22, 2026, doctors from Lyon Sud Hospital and Claude Bernard Lyon 1 University presented the case of the first documented human infection, and possibly the first fatality, of the Shamonda virus. They describe the case in detail in an article published in Eurosurveillance. Here's what you need to know.
Where did the virus come from?
The Shamonda virus belongs to the orthobunyavirus family, RNA viruses that infect livestock. It was first detected in Nigeria in 1965, and has since been reported in several African countries, as well as in Japan (in 2002). The virus has been identified for the first time in Europe in June 2026, in cattle farms in eastern France, then in Germany and Switzerland. Two strains have emerged in Europe since then, SHAV-EU1 and SHAV-EU2.
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