The virus is named after the county in eastern Kansas where a patient infected with the strain died in the late spring of 2014. The virus is the first known member of the thogotovirus family known to cause illness in the U.S.
Thogotoviruses are known to be spread by ticks and mosquitoes in parts of Europe, Asia, and Africa, although the Bourbon virus case is only the eighth demonstrated instance of human infection with such a virus. The patient, a man over the age of 50, suffered multiple tick bites prior to developing a fever, fatigue, aches, nausea, vomiting, and low white blood cell and platelet counts. The patient was given doxycycline, a common treatment for tick-borne illnesses, but he tested negative for previously known diseases carried by ticks and died of multi-organ failure 11 days after the onset of his symptoms.
Researchers from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the University of Kansas, and the Kansas Department of Health and Environment examined the patient’s blood and found an unidentified virus. The scientists then used advanced molecular detection (AMD) to sequence the viral genome, confirming that it was a previously unknown disease pathogen.
At this time, the only known prevention strategy for limiting Bourbon virus infection is to avoid tick bites, and there is currently no treatment. However, it should be noted that the incidence rate of this disease is currently very low.
A review paper about the virus has been published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. The paper is titled “Novel Thogotovirus Species Associated with Febrile Illness and Death, United States, 2014.”
In related news, Digital Journalist Karen Graham has reported that “tick-borne diseases are a serious health threat, not only in the United States, but in other regions of the world, and because of a warming planet.” This is light of an increase in the rate of infections from various forms of tick-borne illnesses across the North America.
