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mahatmakanejeeves

(65,652 posts)
Thu Mar 27, 2025, 06:35 AM Mar 2025

Michigan patient dies after contracting rabies through a transplanted organ [View all]

HEALTH NEWS
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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