Discovery of Bourbon Virus Raises Many Questions

Medscape ^ | Dec 24, 2014 | Robert Lowes

[AdmSmith]

The discovery of a new virus implicated in the death of a Kansas farmer this past June raises many questions about its host, prevalence, spectrum of disease, and ultimately its treatment and prevention, according to an infectious disease expert who treated the patient.

Yesterday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced the first known case of the so-called Bourbon virus, named after the Kansas county where the unidentified patient had lived. His symptoms — fever, low red and white blood cell counts, elevated liver enzymes, and loss of appetite — suggested a tick-borne illness such as ehrlichiosis or the Heartland virus, but test results were negative. A laboratory with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Fort Collins, Colorado, finally determined that the virus was one never seen before in the Western hemisphere.

The Bourbon virus belongs to the orthomyxovirus family and possesses a genome similar to that of such viruses in Eastern Europe, Africa, and Asia, said Dana Hawkinson, MD, an infectious disease physician at the University of Kansas Hospital, who cared for the Kansas farmer. The virus appears to be tick-borne, but that has not been proven yet.

[AdmSmith]

The sequencing of DNA and RNA is very fast nowadays, so we will find many, many "new" viruses.

[AdmSmith]

The Bourbon that you don't want:



http://viralzone.expasy.org/all_by_species/79.html

[goldstategop]

You can thank Obama, Boner and McConman for importing it here.

Thanks, Open Borders Crowd, for exposing us to all the wonderful infectious diseases we didn’t have before.

As Jeb would say, “its an act of love.”

[AdmSmith]

video: http://www.medicalnewsnetwork.org/NewsNetwork/DocTalk/B/Bourbon%20Virus

[AdmSmith]

No, that is not correct, you can thank the development of sequencing technology for all the “new” infectious dideases.

[mkmensinger]

I never had the bourbon virus, but there were a few times in my youth when I woke up with the Jack Daniels virus.

[AdmSmith]

I had the same and we are both lucky that it wasn’t the Bourbon ;-)

[Brandonmark]

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Ever notice that when a new virus is found in ticks or mice it is always in one area.

Then as if by magic it suddenly pops up in other regions far distant, as Hantavirus did in the 4 Corners region, then Washington state and other areas.

Same for Lyme disease.

Maybe these diseases have been here all along jut never found in humans till one got really sick.

There was also some tick born disease (Heartland) killed a man in Delaware County OK this year.

[Boogieman]

“Then as if by magic it suddenly pops up in other regions far distant...”

Well, ticks hitch rides on rodents and rodents hitch rides on anything that humans are riding in, so they can go anywhere pretty quick nowadays.

[AdmSmith]

Yes, that is correct for the vast majority of cases, but there are some that are imported. Viruses are very interesting.

check these sites: http://www.virology.ws/ http://www.iayork.com/MysteryRays/ and https://flutrackers.com/forum/forum/the-pandemic-discussion-forum?f=36

[Red_Devil 232]

OMG! You mean I have to pour my Makers Mark down the drain?

[roofgoat]

all I know is that something better be done about ticks. just living with them is not going to work out. they don’t care if you are rural or not anymore. and they have so many damn diseases they are an evil cocktail of crap waiting to ruin the unfortunate person that happens to get unlucky.

[AdmSmith]

Do not forget Bambi and other http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deer they should be hunted more. One deer can have 2000+ ticks.

The distribution of ticks http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/geographic_distribution.html

[wastedyears]

I thought it was a virus that in a certain bourbon.

[mc5cents]

Oh no. Does this mean that all those mint juleps at the Derby next year will have to contain a warning label?

[AdmSmith]

“all I know is that something better be done about ticks.”

Agree, here are some suggestions http://www.cdc.gov/Features/StopTicks/ and http://www.cdc.gov/ticks/avoid/in_the_yard.html

http://tickapp.tamu.edu/control.php

but the best preventive measurement is the old fashioned gun - Kill thousands of ticks with one shot - blast a deer!

[AdmSmith]

LOL measurement => measure

[freeangel]

The cdc cant even stop or acknowledge the over 300000 cases of tick borne lyme disease a year. they will also be clueless about atick borne virus.