A Suffolk County man was confirmed as New York’s first case of the rare, untreatable Bourbon virus after a tick bite, spotlighting rising risks from tick-borne illnesses in the Northeast.
Michael Larkin, a 67-year-old Long Island resident, was bitten by two lone star ticks while working outdoors in Suffolk County in 2021. After developing a rash, fever, night sweats, and headaches, Larkin spent five days in the hospital before making a full recovery. However, it would take five years for his infection to be definitively diagnosed as Bourbon virus, a rare tick-borne disease previously seen mostly in the Midwest and known for its potential to be fatal and to resist existing treatments.
This marks the first confirmed case of Bourbon virus in New York, according to reporting from the New York Post. Cases have previously been identified in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Missouri, where the virus is more prevalent, but even there, reports average less than one case per year. Two patients in those states have died from the virus.
Dr. Luis Marcos, the treating physician for Larkin, has warned that the situation could be more serious than this single case suggests. “Now we know the virus can be lethal. On Long Island, at least, we have a lot of lone star ticks,” Dr. Marcos said. He added, “And honestly this may be the very, very tip of the iceberg.”
Unlike Lyme disease, which is well-known in the region and has established protocols for diagnosis and treatment, Bourbon virus is much harder to detect and currently has no specific treatment. Dr. Marcos stated, “There are a lot of lone star ticks in New York and in the Northeast, we have dense populations,” and warned, “The Bourbon virus is likely more prevalent than we think in our region and other cases are likely not being diagnosed.”
The timeline of Larkin’s ordeal is telling: infected in 2021, he did not receive a confirmed diagnosis until five years later, and only then through specialized testing. This delay highlights the challenge of identifying emerging pathogens in time to prevent broader outbreaks, a lesson that should be all too familiar to public health officials after recent crises. As seen during the Ebola outbreaks in Africa, early detection and monitoring are critical but often hampered by bureaucracy and a lack of urgency, as covered in our reporting on Ebola fears spreading to Brazil and Italy.
Tick-borne illnesses are no longer isolated to southern or rural states. The lone star tick, once limited to warmer regions, now has an established presence in New York and throughout the Northeast. As tick populations grow, so does the risk of rare pathogens like Bourbon virus finding new footholds in densely populated areas.
Despite the confirmed case and the warnings from Dr. Marcos, there has been no public announcement of new surveillance or containment efforts from New York health authorities. The treating medical facility has not been named, and it remains unclear what specialized tests were needed to confirm the diagnosis, or why detection took half a decade. Dr. Marcos cautioned, “Without identifying the cause of an infection, the chances of developing accurate diagnostic tests or effective treatments are minimal. That is why it is so important to first understand the true impact of the virus in high-risk areas.”
The slow response and lack of transparency echoes failures seen in the early stages of other viral outbreaks. Ineffective containment and delayed public health action have had grave consequences elsewhere, as seen in the Marburg and Ebola outbreaks in Africa and the spread of Ebola to Europe. These episodes serve as a warning for American officials: waiting until after a pathogen is entrenched makes controlling it far more difficult and costly.
For all the talk about “following the science,” public health leaders too often respond to new threats with slow, bureaucratic caution, rather than clear-eyed urgency. The Bourbon virus has been known to cause death in a minority of cases, and experts now believe it is likely more common in the Northeast than previously thought. But there is no evidence of stepped-up surveillance, public information campaigns, or coordinated diagnostic efforts in New York following this case.
Other countries have learned the hard way that early action and honest reporting are key to containing viral outbreaks, as shown by the travel restrictions and public warnings during Ebola’s spread to France. When health officials fail to keep the public informed, the public pays the price.
The emergence of Bourbon virus in New York is a wake-up call, a reminder that nature does not respect state lines, and that bureaucratic inertia only heightens the danger. If leaders will not get ahead of these threats, the consequences will fall, as always, on ordinary people.
