Federal health officials detail the death of patient suffering from first known case of ‘Bourbon virus’
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
Saturday, February 21, 2015, 11:20 PM
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CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROLHealth officials noted the new virus with single-line arrows on the above slides. The double arrows show a previously known virus.
The death of a man who perished 11 days after contracting a newly-discovered virus is shedding the first light into a disease health officials are calling the “Bourbon virus."
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a study Friday of the symptoms suffered by a patient named John Seested, a man in his fifties from eastern Kansas who discovered a tick on his shoulder last spring and later suffered as his nausea and diarrhea gave way to fever and chills and his ultimate death. The disease is named for the county Seested hailed from.
Health officials have linked the new pathogen with a type known as thogotoviruses that come from mosquitos or ticks in Europe, Asia and Africa, but Seested’s death is the group’s first appearance in the U.S. and only the eighth recorded time a human has caught any virus in that group, according to the agency.
Doctors initially treated Seested with an antibiotic to deal with what appeared to be a known tick-borne illness, but his condition worsened as his organs started failing and he began to need assistance breathing, the study says.
Health officials believe the Bourbon virus is likely to have caused Seested’s illness and “might have contributed” to his death, according to the study.
CENTER FOR DISEASE CONTROLElectron microscopic images show tiny virus particles from the new Thogotovirus.
But they are still working on identifying whether ticks or other parasites do cause the new disease, as well as whether Seested’s death represents a rare death from a commonplace but previously undiagnosed virus or an evolved deadly strain of it, USA Today reported.
"It will be important to determine how widespread the Bourbon virus is in both ticks, insects, animals and humans and to grasp the spectrum of illness it is capable of causing," Amesh Adalja, a senior associate at the Center for Health Security of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told the publication. "The fact that a novel virus was discovered underscores the need for perpetual vigilance, in all locales, with respect to emerging infectious diseases. It is only by leaving no stone unturned when investigating unexplained illnesses that humans can best prepare for microbial threats."
