Sarah Flanagan February 22, 2015

C Block Odd Mr. Ippolito

Man’s Death Leads to Discovery of New Virus in Kansas

Ellis, Ralph. "Man's Death Leads to Discovery of New Virus in Kansas, CDC Reports." CNN. Cable News Network, 20 Feb. 2015. Web. 21 Feb. 2015. <http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/20/health/new-virus-discovered/index.html>.

The article that I read, Man’s Death Leads to Discovery of New Virus in Kansas by Ralph Ellis, describes a 50-year-old man’s shocking death after showing similar symptoms to that of lyme disease. The man, who lived in Bourbon County, Kansas, had been bitten by numerous ticks in the spring of 2014. When admitted into the hospital for symptoms including, “fever, tiredness, rash, headache, other body aches, nausea and vomiting” (Ellis para. 6), the doctors tested him for multiple contagious diseases. They all came back negative. The doctors didn’t know what they were dealing with. It seemed as though he had lyme disease, but the medication they gave him did nothing. So the doctors took a blood sample and sent it to the CDC, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to determine what the man was suffering from. Unfortunately the man died from a heart attack due to organ failure 11 days after being put in the hospital. About 6 months after the man died the CDC was able to confirm that it can potentially be a new virus and have named it after the county the man lived in, Bourbon. They believe that the virus is carried in ticks and possibly other animals. Even though they only have the one case in the United States to base their findings off of, the CDC still advises you to be cautious. The CDC thinks that the Bourbon virus is in the same group as other viruses found in Europe, Asia, and Africa, known as thogotoviruses. This would be the first time that a thogotovirus was found in the United States.

This new discovery of a virus never before seen in the United States is very important to the well-being of Americans. This may be the first breakout of the virus, but it could very easily spread throughout the country through tick bites. Luckily, with the help of the CDC and others, doctors are now able to identify the virus and hopefully get the proper help for the patient. The CDC will keep working on learning about this new virus, how it came to the United States, and how to quickly treat it or prevent it. For now they advise that people should, “protect themselves by tick bites by using insect repellents, wearing long-sleeved shirts and pants, avoiding bushy and wooded areas and checking for ticks after spending time outdoors” (Ellis para. 8).

This CNN article was quite well written but very brief in the things that the author wrote himself. The only thing that I would criticize about this article is that the author summarized the information in a way that seemed hurried. But he was able to get the overall point across. One of the things I thought was a good decision was that he gave many different sources where you could learn more about the Bourbon virus. For example, there was a short video with an interview of a doctor that worked at the hospital where the man was admitted and two links that went into depth about the Bourbon virus. When watching the video and reading some of the things that the CDC explained on their website, I was able to get a better understanding of what the virus really is and what had happened to the man on medical standpoints. Though I didn’t learn much from the actual article, learning about the Bourbon virus was really intriguing.