Researchers at Stony Brook University report a confirmed case of Bourbon virus, a tickborne disease first identified in Bourbon County, Kansas in 2014, in New York (Long Island) for the first time in April.
In the study, researchers analyzed 107 individuals presenting with fever and other tick-borne illness symptoms between 2019 and 2024. Blood samples were collected from patients and sent to the NYS Department of Health. Two cases had neutralizing antibodies for the Bourbon virus (one had neutralizing antibodies to Heartland virus). One of these patients had a four-fold rise in antibody titers of the Bourbon virus, which, according to the researchers, indicates an acute or recent infection of this virus.
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“This one case certainly was the Bourbon virus, and over a one-month period antibody titers increased eight-fold. The patient had shown some very severe symptoms and was hospitalized,” Luis Marcos, MD, lead author and professor in the Departments of Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology at the Renaissance School of Medicine (RSOM) at Stony Brook University, and director of the Tick-borne Disease Clinic said.
The Bourbon virus is transmitted through the common lone star tick, and could soon begin to complicate diagnoses if it becomes more prevalent this summer and in coming years, researchers warn.
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Symptoms of Bourbon virus include fever, fatigue, rash, headache, body aches and nausea. Because there is no commercially available diagnostic test, doctors have a difficult time identifying it.
Marcos and co-authors stress that for clinicians, the results from their study “highlight the need for expanded viral surveillance, clinical testing and assay development to improve clinical decision-making and inform tick-borne disease epidemiology and vector management.”
He added, “Without identifying the cause of an infection, the chances of developing accurate diagnostic tests or effective treatments are minimal. That is why it is so important to first understand the true impact of the virus in high-risk areas.”
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On the Elizabeth Islands at Cape Cod MA we have huge numbers of ticks and all the allergies and illnesses that go along with them. We also have no pavement or vehicles so we are into tick habitat as soon as we step out the door. We have beguin to see ticks as injections systems for whatever they have in their system, so we are concerned about what else might be coming: Bourbon virus is one of those pathogens. We decided a decade back that we needed to prevent tickbite to avoid having to endure the illnesses and treatments for them. We have developed an oversock to stop ticks on the foot and lower leg where they often hop on. We chose a tight-weave parachute fabric so that even the tiniest ticks can't get through, found a fabric that is light and breathable but tough, and we used a turndown at the knee to stop ticks from climbing (which they always try to do). We treat these at Insect Shield in NC so that they are double protection: repelling ticks with permethrin that lasts seventy washings and blocking access to skin with an unbroken barrier over the foot to the knee. We had a lot of interest outside our island community so we sewed up a big batch in Fall River MA. They have substantially reduced our tickbites, search Ticktogs to find them.