Michigan patient dies after contracting rabies through a transplanted organ
Michigan patient dies after contracting rabies through a transplanted organ
Potential organ donors are screened for viruses, bacteria and other infections, but rabies isn’t usually among those tests.
——— A colorized transmission electron micrograph of rabies virus particles (blue).BSIP SA / Alamy
March 26, 2025, 9:36 PM EDT
By Randi Richardson
A Michigan resident who received a transplant in December died after having been infected with rabies from the new organ, the state health department said Wednesday.
“A public health investigation determined they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ,” Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.
The patient received the transplant at a hospital in Ohio in December, then died in January, the department said. The statement did not include information about identity of the recipient or the type of organ that was transplanted. The donor was not a resident of Michigan or Ohio, it said.
Sutfin said the Michigan and Ohio health departments "worked closely" together and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the investigation into the patient's death. The CDC's Rabies Laboratory confirmed the diagnosis.
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= new reply since forum marked as read
To some, "mad cow" was the cause of death for one of my patients in Northern Virginia in the early nineteen nineties. He got it from a cornea transplant.
The CDC at the time had me use universal precautions with gowns and booties, etc. I was instructed to gown & wear eye protection because my job requirements meant I had very close proximity to secretions with splash risk. Everything had to be put in red biohazard bags at doffing.
We now know that was overkill because the transmission is tissue to tissue. At the time, that was unclear.
He died three weeks after I opened his case. The deterioration was dramatic and very unsettling due to the changes that the brain goes through with prion disease.
One need only to watch the old videos of mad cow's effects on livestock that were filmed before our knowledge of human to human transmission to get an idea of the horror that he suffered.
The transplant supply is poorly regulated worldwide so that even today, the risks are enormous.
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