Two emerging tick viruses that can be deadly are spreading in the US
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- Heartland virus and Bourbon virus have killed at least seven people in the US and are spreading, with Nebraska becoming the ninth state to detect one or both pathogens in local lone star ticks
- New York recently reported its first human Bourbon virus case in a man in his 60s bitten by multiple ticks while working outdoors on Long Island; the man recovered after a sample was sent to the New York State Department of Health by a Stony Brook University research team led by Luis Marcos
- University of Nebraska Medical Center researchers analyzed more than 7,000 lone star ticks collected statewide from 2022 to 2026, finding both viruses in Sarpy County and Heartland virus in Richardson County — both in southeastern Nebraska near Missouri and Kansas
- More than 80 people have been infected with Heartland virus since 2012 across central and eastern US states, with at least four deaths, including a 32-year-old Connecticut woman who died of cardiac arrest last October with the virus found in her brain
- No commercial tests or antivirals exist for either virus — they're only detected when hospitalised patients' samples are sent to specialised laboratories like the CDC, and symptoms (fever, fatigue, headache, muscle aches) are easily mistaken for other tick-borne illnesses
- Blood samples from hundreds of Missourians show almost 1% have neutralising antibodies to Heartland or Bourbon virus, indicating previous infections that were never formally diagnosed, according to researcher Joseph Fauver
Why it matters: As lone star ticks push north and west due to climate change and reforestation, more Americans fall into the exposure zone for two viruses with no commercial tests and no antivirals — meaning infections are likely undercounted and public health officials depend on surveillance in newly colonised counties rather than clinical detection. Outdoor workers, hikers, and farmers in affected states have no diagnostic recourse beyond having blood samples shipped to the CDC.
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