CDC
The Bourbon virus, a newly discovered tick-borne pathogen named after the county in eastern Kansas where a patient infected with the strain died in the late spring of 2014, is the first member of the thogotovirus family known to cause illness in the United States, according to a paper released last week (February 20) in Emerging Infectious Diseases.
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, had suffered multiple tick bites prior to developing a fever, fatigue, aches, nausea, vomiting, and low white blood cell and platelet counts. He ...
