CDC microbiologist Olga Kosoy noticed a virus growing on the patient’s blood sample. “It took months to find out this a novel virus that belonged to a genus of viruses called Thogotovirus,” Staples told NBC news. “Thogotoviruses have been described throughout the world.” But they rarely cause human disease, and the closest relative to the virus ever seen in the U.S. was a sample found in a bird’s nest in Aransas Bay, off the coast of Texas. It is possible that other persons have been infected with this and not known it?” 
 
 “It took months to find out this a novel virus that belonged to a genus of viruses called Thogotovirus." Scientists are reporting on a new virus, never seen before anywhere, that apparently killed a Kansas man last year. The research team is not giving details on the man other than that he was healthy, under the age of 50 and working outdoors on his property in eastern Kansas last spring when he came inside with tick bites and one fat tick still on his shoulder. On the third day of illness, the patient went to his primary care physician, who empirically prescribed doxycycline for a presumed tickborne illness because of his history of tick bites, symptoms, and no reported travel outside the immediate area. But by the fourth day, the patient was drifting in and out of consciousness and was taken by ambulance to the hospital. He just got sicker, and blood tests cleared him of the usual tickborne illnesses such as Rocky Mountain spotted fever, Lyme disease, or ehrlichiosis. After multiple resuscitations, the decision was made to withdraw further care, and he died shortly after being extubated, 11 days after first becoming ill. An autopsy was not performed. Results of comprehensive evaluations for tickborne diseases, including serologic testing for Rocky Mountain spotted fever, tularemia, brucella, babesiosis, and Q fever; molecular testing for Ehrlichia spp. Technicians there ran all sorts of tests that came back negative, says the CDC’s Dr. Erin Staples. Therefore, to potentially prevent Bourbon virus disease, as well as other tickborne diseases, persons should be advised to avoid tick bites by using an insect repellent registered with the US Environmental Protection Agency to be effective against ticks, wearing long sleeves and pants, avoiding bushy and wooded areas, and performing tick checks after spending time outdoors. Ms. Kosoy is a microbiologist at the Arboviral Diseases Branch, Division of Vector-Borne Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Fort Collins, Colorado. The medical team finally decided to check for another new mystery virus called Heartland virus, another tickborne virus that had only turned up in 2011. It’s important to find out more from a public health perspective.
– The Bourbon virus—so named because it first emerged recently in Bourbon County, Kansas—has puzzled researchers. A man with the first known case of the disease died last year, and since then, experts have been working to learn more about it. A new study outlines findings, NBC News reports. "It took months to find out this a novel virus that belonged to a genus of viruses called Thogotovirus," which have been seen "throughout the world," CDC researcher Erin Staples tells NBC. Just one example of the Thogotovirus has appeared in the US, the researchers write in a CDC publication: Aransas Bay virus, found in ticks in a seabird nest off Texas. Though the Kansas death is the first scientists have linked to the illness, Staples believes it has probably affected others; they just didn't know it. That doesn't mean we should panic, she notes; we should just continue to protect ourselves against ticks, which may be carriers. Mosquitoes and other animals may also be involved, and researchers are preparing to investigate.