‘Heartland Virus’ baffles health authorities

NORTHWEST MISSOURI — Federal health officials have been working to determine the source of a new virus recently discovered in Northwest Missouri, where it sickened two men who live miles apart and who reported having tick bites days before they were hospitalized in 2009. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a recently published report it is so far unclear what causes the new virus, which has been named the Heartland virus. But the CDC said an investigation is under way to determine if the illness, which includes symptoms of fever, diarrhea and fatigue, stems from bites from ticks, mosquitoes or other insects. Both patients recovered after about a month. The authors of the report published in the Aug. 30 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine include CDC scientist Dr. William Nicholson and Dr. Scott Folk, director of infectious diseases at Heartland Regional Medical Center in St. Joseph, where the two men who contracted the virus were treated in June 2009. Folk said the men — one aged 57, the other 67 — were hospitalized for about 10 days. The men live about 60 miles apart and did not know one another. Folk said he initially suspected both men had contracted a tick-borne infection called ehrlichiosis, which has similar symptoms, so he sent their blood samples to the CDC for identification. He treated both men with the standard antibiotic treatment for ehrlichiosis, but found they didn’t respond well. The new virus is a previously undetected phlebovirus, and is suspected to be tick-related, said Laura McMullan, senior scientist at CDC who was also involved in the research. Heartland virus also appears to be from the U.S., and not an import. Considerable more work remains to be done to fully understand Heartland virus. He said while the two men in northwest Missouri are the only two documented cases, it’s likely others have been infected. The CDC has been working with Missouri health officials and other hospitals to determine the prevalence of the virus.