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Friday, December 26, 2014

THE BOURBON VIRUS - NEW POWERFUL VIRUS KILLS MAN IN KANSAS - It is transmitted by ticks and it is deadly.

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 New deadly illness discovered in Kansas: Tick-borne disease named the 'Bourbon Virus' is believed to be behind mysterious demise of farmer.
  • John Seested, 68, was admitted to University of Kansas hospital in June with symptoms similar to those of tick-borne diseases
  • But tests for known illnesses came back negative shortly before he went into multiple organ failure and died 
  • Researchers from the CDC and University of Kansas discovered the disease was tick borne, dubbing it the Bourbon Virus
  • No vaccine currently exists for the virus, though researchers say they're working on how to combat it 
  • It is related to similar viruses in Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.

  • Researchers have identified a new tick-borne illness believed to be the cause of a Kansas man's death this summer.  The Centers for Disease Control are investigating a new disease being named the Bourbon Virus that doctors struggled to identify for months.

     WPTV reports that a patient entered the University of Kansas Medical Center with symptoms like those of other diseases carried by ticks.  In spite of the symptoms, John Seested, 68, tested negative for known tick-borne illnesses, according to the Fort Scott Tribune.
     
    'It was very frustrating,' Dr Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease physician at the hospital told WPTV about the uncertainty surrounding the diagnosis.  'That's one of the biggest problems with my job, which I love, when we can't answer those questions, when we can't help the patients or their families.'
     
    The man did not respond to treatment, according to Dr Hawkinson, and soon went into multiple organ failure and died. 

    There is still no vaccine for this newly discovered illness, though researchers say they're pressing ahead to look at how to fight the disease.   'This may be a cause of other people's illness as well and those will be steps we're going to be looking at with the CDC too,' Hawkinson said.

    The medical mystery began late last spring, when the patient was admitted to the hospital with a high fever, muscle aches and loss of appetite. He worked outdoors and often had tick bites.

    That history and his symptoms, combined with abnormal results on blood tests — his liver enzymes were too high, his platelets and white cells too low — made doctors suspect tick-borne diseases like Rocky Mountain spotted fever or ehrlichiosis. But tests for those illnesses came back negative.
     
    Dr. Hawkinson suspected another, recently discovered tick-borne illness caused by the Heartland virus and sent blood samples to the C.D.C. for testing. But those tests also came back negative.
     
    Researchers at the C.D.C. noticed that something else seemed to be growing in the samples that were tested for the Heartland virus, and they eventually identified the Bourbon virus.
     
    The Bourbon virus is a type of thogoto virus, which is in the orthomyxoviridae family of RNA viruses.  Although most closely related to viral genomes that only are found in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, this is the first time that a thogotovirus has been identified in the Western Hemisphere.
     
    None of the related viruses in those regions, however, have been identified as a cause of human disease.
     
    Sources
     
     
     
     
    http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/837229


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