--- title: New Killer Virus Found in Kansas description: They're calling it Bourbon virus canonical: https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/ author: NBC News article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-21T14:07:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T04:36:14.614Z article:section: Health og:title: New Killer Virus Found in Kansas og:description: They're calling it Bourbon virus og:url: https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: New Killer Virus Found in Kansas twitter:description: They're calling it Bourbon virus twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # New Killer Virus Found in Kansas by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 21, 2015 2:07 PM UTC by [NBC News](https://time.com/author/nbc-news/) ## NBC News Feb 21, 2015 2:07 PM UTC Scientists are reporting on a new virus, never seen before anywhere, that apparently killed a Kansas man last year. They’re calling it Bourbon virus, after the county in Kansas where the previously healthy man lived. He’d been bitten by ticks before he got sick so doctors believe the virus is carried by ticks. “We were not looking for a new virus,” said Charles Hunt, Kansas state epidemiologist, who helped report on the new virus. “We are surprised. We really don’t know much about this virus. It’s important to find out more from a public health perspective. It is possible that other persons have been infected with this and not known it?”… [Read the rest of the story from our partners at NBC News](http://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/new-killer-virus-found-kansas-n309961?cid=par-time-article%5F20150221) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/"},"headline":"New Killer Virus Found in Kansas","datePublished":"2015-02-21T14:07:53.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T04:36:14.614Z","description":"They're calling it Bourbon virus","url":"https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/","keywords":["Infectious Disease"],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NBC News","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/nbc-news/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/infectious-disease/","name":"Infectious Disease"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3717617/kansas-bourbon-virus/","name":"New Killer Virus Found in Kansas"}}]}] ```