In America, mites carry a deadly human virus
Last reviewed: 23.04.2024
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Physicians of the United States of America are alarmed by the spread of a new deadly virus, unknown to the scientific community. Specialists have already faced the first death from an unknown disease, the carrier of which became a tick.
Within half a year, epidemiologists, specialists of the US public research university in Kansas, established the causes of the death of a 50-year-old resident of Kansas state, from the county of Bourbon.
As it was established to the research group, the death of a man came as a result of a disease that provoked an unknown virus to the science. As experts noted, the genome of the virus resembles those found in Africa, Eastern Europe, and Asia, but in Western Europe, viruses from this group have never been seen before. Despite the fact that death from a new virus is fixed only in a single case, experts express concern, since the vaccine is currently not developed and this can lead to an epidemic.
Scientists gave the name of the new virus - Bourbon, in the place of its first detection. Experts also found similarities between the Bourbon virus and the Heartland virus identified in 2009.
Several years ago, experts from the Heartland Regional Medical Center described a previously unknown virus that transmitted mites and caused fatigue, fever, diarrhea, and elevated blood platelet counts. The Bourbon virus has similar symptoms to Heartland, but in addition, it leads to severe depletion of the body.
Both viruses are transmitted to humans from ticks. As is known, mites can tolerate both bacterial and viral diseases. The most common disease transmitted by mites in our latitudes is the tick-borne encephalitis virus. Infectionists of all countries agree that encephalitis is easier to prevent with the help of special protective equipment (clothes, sprays, etc.) than cure.
Also, the academic community is concerned about the ongoing mutation of the Ebola virus, which killed many lives in West Africa and continues to spread among the population. Experts expressed concern that the mutated virus will spread through the planet by airborne droplets. According to microbiologists, the virus that causes a fatal fever has already reached the stage at which it will be transmitted from person to person by respiratory route, like the flu, but the consequences of such an epidemic will become a real world catastrophe.
As some researchers believe, the microscopic particles of the deadly fever of Ebola are already able to get into the air and cause disease in others. Such particles originate in the human gastrointestinal tract and enter the air through the lungs.
However, virologists believe that the deadly fever will be transmitted in the future only through direct contact with the patient's biological fluids (blood, saliva and other discharges). In this case, virus specialists are sure that in order for the virus to be in the active phase of life, it needs to be in the blood.
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