Adnkronos (Adnkronos) – In early October, a patient died in France, the first ever case of human infection with the Shamonda virus. And already this summer, the pathogen was reported circulating in farm animals in several European countries, including Italy. "If we haven't yet understood how dangerous the climate crisis is for our species, all these warnings should wake us up."
Pier Luigi Lopalco, full professor of Hygiene at the University of Salento, issued the warning in a social media post the day after the news of the first human being infected with Shav, confirmed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
“And now even fruit flies are getting involved…”, headlines Lopalco, who worked at the ECDC for a decade, from 2005 to 2015, directing the program for vaccine-preventable diseases.
"The news of the first human case of infection, a lethal one, by the Shamonda virus is fresh," he writes. "I confess: it was the first time I'd heard of this virus, which is better known among veterinarians because it can infect various farm animals, especially ruminants. A patient, described as severely immunocompromised," the doctor recalls, "died in early October in a Lyon hospital following an infection by a Shamonda-like virus.
The virus was likely contracted in the same way it spreads among animals, that is, through the bite of a Culicoides midge.”
For Lopalco, "the news lies in the fact that this virus was never thought to infect humans. Research on the virus continues to better define the strain and understand whether the exceptionality of the event lies in the fragility of the patient or in the virus's new pathogenic capabilities. The fact remains," the expert emphasizes, "that over the past summer, the Shamonda virus was observed in many farms in Europe (including Italy), and its circulation intensified due to climate change, which favors the proliferation of the vector. This vector, among other things, is well known to veterinarians because it causes a more famous (and more fearsome for farms) disease: 'blue tongue'." So, let's focus on climate change. "Climate change and globalization," Lopalco concludes, "also mean this: that we need to study veterinary medicine."
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