Originally Posted By skinnerbox <a target="blank" rel="nofollow" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/24/science/mysterious-virus-that-killed-a-farmer-in-kansas-is-identified.html?_r=2">http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12...tml?_r=2</a> <> Mysterious Virus That Killed a Farmer in Kansas Is Identified By DENISE GRADYDEC. 23, 2014 Researchers have identified a previously unknown virus, thought to be transmitted by ticks or mosquitoes, that led to the death of a farmer in Kansas last summer. The illness was fast-moving and severe, causing lung and kidney failure, and shock. The man, previously healthy, died after about only 10 days in the hospital, according to Dr. Dana Hawkinson, an infectious disease specialist who treated the patient at the University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City. The newly discovered microbe has been named the Bourbon virus, for the county where the patient lived, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment said in a statement released Monday. The virus was identified by scientists at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention through a process that took several months, according to Dr. J. Erin Staples, a medical epidemiologist at the C.D.C. laboratory in Fort Collins, Colo. She said the virus was a type of thogotovirus, part of a larger family known as orthomyxoviruses. Its nearest relatives are found in Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, Dr. Hawkinson said. Those viruses are spread by ticks and mosquitoes. Researchers do not yet know whether there have been other cases in the United States. They hope to test stored blood samples from people who had similar illnesses in the past that could not be identified. “I think we have to assume this has been around for some time, and we haven’t been able to diagnose it,” Dr. Hawkinson said. He added, “We suspect there have been milder cases and people have recovered from them, but we don’t have a lot of information.” There is no treatment for the disease. The best defense is to avoid insect bites by wearing pants and long sleeves outdoors and applying bug spray that contains the repellent DEET. 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. But the researchers are not certain that ticks or mosquitoes transmit the virus, or whether other animals might carry it. “We will be working with state and local health departments come springtime to do extensive field investigations,” Dr. Staples said. For now, the risk to the public is low because ticks and mosquitoes are not active in cold weather. But ticks rebound earlier in the year than mosquitoes do, she said, once the temperature starts consistently reaching 55 degrees Fahrenheit. <> Trust me, folks. This is a big deal. The farmer DIED. From a virus he got IN THIS COUNTRY. Folks get all worked up over ebola which is not endemic to our shores. But now a deadly virus that wasn't part of our landscape previously has been discovered in Kansas. And what do we hear in the news? Nothing. Unbelievable the deafening silence by the media, given how worked up they got over ebola in Dallas.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip You don't see the difference? Ebola has killed thousands worldwide and this new disease one. Ebola is spread by human to human contact. There is no indication at this point that Bourbon is. Make mine a Makers Mark.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox Did you read the article? The virus is the same genus as one from eastern Europe and Africa which has killed countless individuals elsewhere. And now the virus is here. It's only a new virus for our continent. We have one known dead person, and possibly dozens of others who died from mysterious causes over recent years. Researchers believe that some of these people probably died from the same virus. Exhumation and testing will confirm these theories. And tick/mosquito borne illness is far more difficult to deal with than diseases from direct human contact, unless you live in urban jungles like NYC or downtown LA. Rickettsial diseases are on the rise big time, because the insects which carry them are increasing exponentially. (Thanks, global warming.) Speaking as someone who's suffered from chronic Lyme for the past two decades, it's nearly impossible to cover yourself from head to toe with insect repellent. Bugs will still find a way to latch on and have a snack. And with diseases like Lyme, the bacteria are often spread by the nymphs which are no bigger than the point of a straight pin. They're almost impossible to detect on your body once they've attached, looking like teeny tiny freckles. How exactly do you find those in your scalp? You don't. That's probably how I contracted the disease. The media blew ebola in the U.S. way out of proportion, scaring people about a disease that basically is non-existent in the U.S. Now we have something proven to be deadly in healthy adults, and they're staying silent. I guess they only want to scare folks about crap that isn't real.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Ticks may be hard to detect/avoid (though staying out of tall grasses and forests helps) but do not provide the same potential for massive epidemics that diseases that are spread through human contact. And yes, I read the article. Please quote the sentence that indicates the European variant killed ANYONE. For some reason it isn't appearing on my computer screen... either in your post or at the link.
Originally Posted By ecdc >>Ebola has killed thousands worldwide and this new disease one.<< RT, sometimes I think you just like to be contrarian for contrarian sakes. Are you seriously, really telling me the United States freaked out about Ebola because they were so devastated and worried about all those deaths in Africa? If anything, the embarrassment about Ebola was how little Americans cared about it until it showed up here, then the complete meltdown in spite of the fact that our healthcare system could handle it much better and it ultimately proved to be (in this country) much ado about nothing. Ebola was U.S. media hysteria at its absolute worst. It might just top the most embarrassing moment of 2014, in a year filled with lots of embarrassing, appalling behavior in this country. None of which is to say I think the media should necessarily be freaking out over bourbon virus. But to say the media flipped out here because of the deaths worldwide...hahahahahahahaha.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip I agree that the hysteria over a couple of people in this country with Ebola was insane. I said so in a post at the conservative Branson Board that I visit. "The horror stories about Ebola spread by conservatives, like much of what they say, ended up being a bunch of BS. The Americans brought back here with the disease have been cured, and no one else was infected. Time for a NEW conservative scare story!!" What I was disagreeing with was skinner's assertion that Bourbon was as threatening as Ebola and should be covered in the same way. If her post was intended solely as sarcasm, it did not read that way... at least not to me.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Too early to panic about this one. It's one case so far in an isolated area, and doctors had not encountered this particular virus before. Now that the virus has been identified the researchers can begin testing treatment regimens to see if it is susceptible to any of our existing antiviral protocols or medicines. The time to panic is when this begins spreading and when it appears to be resistant to any type of treatment or prevention.
