A series of tragic events led to a transplant-related rabies death earlier this year.
Health officials announced Thursday that the donor received the organ transplant. transplant surgery He died of rabies in February in Ohio. Further investigation revealed that the donor had contracted the deadly virus after rescuing the kitten from a skunk.
From an unnamed patient: michiganreceived a kidney from a donor in December 2024 and subsequently developed severe symptoms that required hospitalization and “invasive” procedures, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
He reportedly experienced fever, tremors, difficulty swallowing, fear of water, and died 51 days after the transplant.
‘Silent killer’ parasitic disease spreads to multiple US states, experts warn
The CDC said the donor, whose tissue was given to three other recipients, was infected with the silver-haired bat variant of rabies, and that a skunk may have infected the bats.
An organ donor from Idaho was scratched on the shin six weeks before his death when he fought off a skunk that had shown “predatory aggression,” records show.
“In late October 2024, a skunk approached a donor who was holding a kitten in an outbuilding on a rural property,” the CDC said in a statement. “During the encounter where the skunk lost consciousness, The donor sustained a wound to his shin. I was bleeding, but I didn’t think I had been bitten. The family said the donor believed the skunk’s behavior was a predatory attack on the kitten. ”
Flesh-eating parasite infection confirmed in US traveler returning from Central America
Over the next five weeks, the donor began experiencing hallucinations, difficulty swallowing, difficulty walking and a stiff neck, authorities said.
Two days later, he was found unresponsive at home with a suspected heart attack, health officials said. He was reportedly resuscitated at the hospital, but was declared brain dead and removed from life support.
The CDC announced that his organs were donated after the family recorded an encounter with a skunk during a donor risk assessment. However, health officials said the form was not tested for rabies because it is “rare in humans.”
“In the United States, a potential donor’s family often provides information about the donor’s infectious disease risk factors, including exposure to animals,” the CDC said. “Rabies is excluded from routine donor pathogen testing because it is rarely transmitted to humans. US and the complexity of diagnostic tests. In this case, the hospital staff who treated the donor did not initially notice the skunk scratch and attributed the prehospital signs and symptoms to chronic comorbidities. ”
Health officials added that three other patients received corneal tissue from donors of the same infected person. All had their grafts removed and were treated for rabies, but remain asymptomatic, according to the CDC report.
Health officials also contacted 370 people who may have come into contact with the donor, the agency said. Of these, 46 were recommended to undergo treatment for rabies.
Organ transplant recipient dies of rabies after surgery
Health officials said the death of a kidney recipient was the fourth recorded case of rabies infection from an organ transplant in the United States since 1978, stressing that the risk of such infections remains extremely low.
Transplant teams are now advised to contact public health authorities if a potential donor has recently been bitten or scratched by an animal susceptible to rabies, especially if the donor has unexplained neurological symptoms.
However, “no standard guidance currently exists for addressing donor animal exposure reporting by transplant teams,” the CDC said.
The agency says approximately 1.4 million Americans are treated for potential rabies exposure each year, and effective prevention efforts result in fewer than 10 deaths from rabies.
Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC for more information.
