Georgia Transplant Patient Getting Rabies Treatment

|

March 18th, 2013

State health officials say they have now notified everyone who might be at risk from coming in contact with a Georgia patient who was exposed to rabies from an organ transplant.

The Georgia patient was one of four who received organ transplants from a man who died of rabies. The Atlanta-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says the patient is now getting rabies shots as are the recipients in Florida and Illinois.An audio version of this story

Nancy Nydam of the Georgia Department of Public Health says the only people exposed to the Georgia patient who might be at risk would be the transplant team, and she calls that risk minimal.

“They’re the only ones who would have handled the organ and come in contact with any fluids associated with it,” said Nydam. “It’s much different than a patient who developed full-blown rabies where he was getting care in the hospital from health professionals and some care, of course, from his own family members.”

That patient, from Maryland, died more than a year after getting a kidney transplant from the infected donor. Health officials say they have now contacted the dozens of people who were exposed to that patient and have also reached those connected to the organ recipients in Illinois and Florida.

The CDC has put together questions and answers about rabies and organ transplants on their web site.  They also have general information about rabies and the rabies virus.

Top Stories