The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirms an individual who died of rabies got the virus from an organ transplant. WABE's John Lorinc has the story.
In 2011, a person—whose identity is not being released—became ill and entered a Florida health care facility.
Shortly before that person died, officials recovered that person’s organs and gave them to four patients in Florida, Georgia, Illinois and Maryland.
Doctor Barbara Reynolds, a spokeswoman for the Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, says the hospital had no reason to suspect the donor had rabies, and tests for the virus were not performed.
However, officials later confirmed rabies as the cause of death for the Maryland man who got an organ from the Florida donor.
“What’s interesting about this particular situation is that there was such a long period from the time the organs were transplanted until one of the recipients was ill and then died and we were able to determine there was a rabies link,” says Reynolds.
The CDC says it took more than a year for rabies symptoms to appear. According to Reynolds, it usually occurs within a new months.
Health officials are working with the three other organ patients, giving them anti-rabies shots.
“At all times, the benefits from transplanted organs generally outweigh the risks from screened donors,” says Reynolds.
According to the CDC, such fatalities are rare, however the last death from a rabies-infected organ happened in 2004.
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