(Digital Journal) A new tick-borne virus has been discovered in the U.S., called Bourbon virus. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Bourbon virus may have killed a previously healthy man in Kansas last year.
The virus is named after the county in eastern Kansas where a patient infected with the strain died in the late spring of 2014. The virus is the first known member of the thogotovirus family known to cause illness in the U.S.
Thogotoviruses are known to be spread by ticks and mosquitoes in parts of Europe, Asia and Africa, although the Bourbon virus case is only the eighth demonstrated instance of human infection with such a virus.