Bourbon virus

The virus was discovered in 2014 by Olga Kosoy, Amy Lambert, and colleagues from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Fort Collins, Colorado, in a sample of blood from the case patient. Tests had previously ruled out a wide range of tick-borne diseases including anaplasmosis, babesiosis, ehrlichiosis, Q fever, Rocky Mountain spotted fever and tularemia. During tests for Heartland virus, a recently discovered Phlebovirus known to be transmitted by ticks, prominent plaques, or areas where the cells were affected by virus infection, were observed on one-cell-thick cultures of African green monkey kidney cells. The plaques did not resemble the effects of Heartland virus, and the researchers hypothesized that they were the work of another virus. Recently developed "next-generation" sequencing techniques were employed to find novel viral RNA sequences in cell culture supernatants, similar to viruses of the genus Thogotovirus, family Orthomyxoviridae. Lambert, who worked on the sequencing, explained that these "state-of-the-art" techniques could be used to identify pathogens that older technologies could not detect. Next, real-time reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction was used to confirm that this novel virus originated in the patient's blood sample. Finally, examining supernatants from the cell cultures under the electron microscope revealed virus particles of different shapes, including filaments and spheres. The virus was named "Bourbon virus" for the county in which it originated. ==Virology==

Bourbon virus is a type of thogotovirus, which is in the RNA virus family Orthomyxoviridae. The virus particles show different morphologies, including filamentous and roughly spherical forms, and have projections from the surface. The spherical virions have a range of diameters, with broadly 100–130 nm being common. Virus was present at high levels in the extracellular space, with occasional particles being observed in the process of endocytosis. Like other members of the Orthomyxoviridae, the Bourbon virus genome is single-stranded, negative-sense RNA, which is segmented, or divided into several separate pieces. It has at least six segments. Bourbon virus is most similar in RNA sequence to Dhori virus and the closely related Batken virus, both members of the genus Thogotovirus, but has diverged substantially from these viruses. Dhori and Batken viruses have only been reported in the Eastern hemisphere. ==Epidemiology==

The Bourbon virus was first identified in a previously healthy man aged more than 50 years from Bourbon County, Kansas, United States, who worked as a farmer. He died in June 2014. The CDC is developing investigational diagnostic tests for Bourbon virus infection; Studies to establish the prevalence of Bourbon virus in tick and insect populations were planned in December 2014. ==Signs and symptoms==

The patient had high fever, headache, decreased appetite, muscle aches, joint pain, fatigue, malaise, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and a maculopapular rash on the abdomen, chest and back. Late in the course of the illness, he experienced shortness of breath, which developed into acute respiratory distress syndrome. He died from multiple organ failure 11 days after the earliest symptoms. Although another member of the genus Thogotovirus, Aransas Bay virus, has been found in seabird-associated ticks in the United States; this is the first reported case of human disease apparently associated with a thogotovirus in the Western hemisphere. ==Treatment and prevention==

No routine diagnostic test is yet available. ==See also==