TraCS CTRC plays a part in helping family affected by rare mosquito disease
La Crosse virus is a mosquito-borne disease transmitted by the eastern treehole mosquito (Aedes triseriatus). The virus, which was first identified in La Crosse, Wisconsin in 1960, is isolated to rural regions where these mosquitoes thrive, including densely wooded areas of southeastern Ohio, eastern Tennessee, and western North Carolina.
Five-year-old Granger Horney contracted this potentially deadly virus in July 2024. Later, while Granger was recovering, doctors and nurses asked the Horney family if they wanted to take part in an ongoing study about the La Crosse virus. With blood samples from Granger, researchers at Carolina are working to create better diagnostics and a treatment for the little-known disease.
In January 2025, the Horney's completed the final stretch of the study. They traveled three hours to UNC to provide special blood samples, giving researchers the chance to isolate and study the antibodies that helped Granger fight the infection. At the NC TraCS Clinical and Translational Research Center (CTRC) in Burnett-Womack, phlebotomists collected five tubes worth of blood from Granger. The samples were then processed and sent off to the National Institutes of Health for further analysis and testing.
Read the full story at news.unchealthcare.org.