In late spring 2014 a previously
healthy man in his 50s was admitted to a hospital in Bourbon County, Kansas,
suffering from Tick bites and a fever. Despite intensive care and treatment
with broad-spectrum anti-microbial drugs he died of cardiopulmonary arrest
brought on by multiple organ failure eleven days after the onset of the
illness. Tests for a wide variety of wide variety of pathogens during treatment
failed to identify the cause of the fever, but a previously unknown species of Thogotovirus was later isolated from his
blood serum.
In a forthcoming paper in the
journal Emerging Infectious Disease, Olga Kosoy and Amy Lambert of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Fort Collins, Colorado, Dana Hawkinson of
the University of Kansas Medical Center, Daniel Pastula of the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention at Fort Collins, Colorado, Cynthia Goldsmith of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Atlanta, Georgia, Charles Hunt
of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment and Erin Staples, also of
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention at Fort Collins, Colorado,
formerly describe the new Thogotovirus as
Bourbon County Virus.
The genus Thogotovirus is a member of the family Orthomyxoviridae, which also
includes Influenza Viruses. At least seven species of Thogotovirus have previously been described; Araguari Virus,
Aransas Bay Virus, Batken Virus, Dhori Virus, Jos Virus, Thogoto Virus, and
Upolu Virus, all of which appear to be carried by Ticks. Of these only one has previously
been isolated in North America, Aransas Bay Virus, which was isolated from Soft
Ticks (Ornithodoros spp.) from
seabird nests off the Texas coast. Two members of the genus have previously
been shown capable of infecting and producing illnesses in humans.
Thogoto Virus was found in two patients in Nigeria in 1966, an adult male with a febrile
illness who later developed neuromyelitis optica (expand) and a
fourteen-year-old boy who developed meningitis and died of complications of
Sickle Cell Anemia. Antibodies to this Virus have been isolated from humans
from other parts of Africa, Asia and Europe, suggesting that it may be more
widespread. Dhori Virus has infected five workers at a Russian lab after
accidental exposure in 1987, two of these patients went on to develop
encephalitis. Antibodies to this Virus have also been found in human
populations in Europe, Asia and Africa, suggesting that it too may be a more
widespread cause of infections than is currently appreciated.
The viral particles isolated from
the Bourbon County patient clearly belonged to a Thogotovirus, and appeared to be closely related to Batken Virus
and Dhori Virus, neither of which has ever been isolated in the Western
Hemisphere. The precise method of transmission for this Virus is unknown; all
previously described species of Thogotovirus
have been transmitted by Ticks and the patient was suffering from Tick bites
when admitted to hospital making this the most likely cause of infection, but
Batken Virus is known to also be carried by Mosquitoes, so a non-Tick vector
cannot be ruled out for Bourbon County Virus.
Electron microscopic images of novel Thogotovirus isolate. Filamentous
(A) and spherical (B) virus particles with distinct surface projection are
visible in culture supernatant that was fixed in 2.5% paraformaldehyde. Kosoy et al. (2015).
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