Second case of rare Bourbon virus found in U.S.

OHMYGOSSIP — The second case of Bourbon virus in the United States has been confirmed in Oklahoma, about a year after the death of the first patient confirmed to have it.

The tick-borne Bourbon virus was discovered in December following the death in late spring 2014 of a previously healthy man in Kansas. The virus was named for the county the man lived in.

“We really don’t know how significant it will be because with only two cases known in the United States, there are a lot of unanswered questions,” Kristy Bradley, Oklahoma’s state epidemiologist, told KFOR-TV. “Among the two cases of Bourbon virus, the Kansas case did die and our Oklahoma patient recovered fully.”

The Payne County, Okla., patient was confirmed by the Centers for Disease Control to have the virus, the symptoms of which include fever, severe muscle, joint pain, fatigue, disorientation, diarrhea and a rash. Doctors told KFOR the patient was treated with fluids while they waited for the virus to pass.

Bourbon virus was discovered by researchers working on the Heartland virus, another tick-borne virus already known. Bourbon virus is the first member of the Thogotovirus genus found in the Western Hemisphere to cause disease and there are no known treatments for it.

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