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A tragic series of events led to a fatal case of transplant-related rabies earlier this year.
Health officials announced Thursday that an organ recipient who underwent transplant surgery in Ohio died of rabies in February. Further investigation revealed that the donor had become infected with the fatal virus after saving a kitten from a skunk.
The unnamed patient, from Michigan, received the donor’s kidney in December 2024, and later developed severe symptoms that prompted hospitalization and “invasive” procedures, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said.
He reportedly experienced fever, tremors, difficulty swallowing and fear of water and died 51 days after the transplant.
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The CDC said the donor, whose donated tissue went to three other recipients, was infected with the silver-haired bat variant of rabies, suggesting the skunk had been infected by a bat.
Records revealed that the organ donor, from Idaho, was scratched on the shin while fending off a skunk that displayed “predatory aggression” six weeks before his death.
“In late October 2024, a skunk approached the donor as he held a kitten in an outbuilding on his rural property,” the CDC said. “During an encounter that rendered the skunk unconscious, the donor sustained a shin scratch that bled, but he did not think he had been bitten. According to the family, the donor attributed the skunk’s behavior to predatory aggression toward the kitten.”
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In the following five weeks, the donor began experiencing hallucinations, trouble swallowing, difficulty walking and a stiff neck, the agency said.
Two days later, he was discovered unresponsive at home after a suspected heart attack, according to health officials. He was reportedly revived at a hospital but was declared brain-dead and removed from life support.
The CDC said his organs were donated after the family documented the skunk encounter in a donor risk assessment. However, health officials noted that the form did not screen for rabies, citing its “rarity in humans.”
“In the United States, potential donors’ family members often provide information about a donor’s infectious disease risk factors, including animal exposures,” the CDC said. “Rabies is excluded from routine donor pathogen testing because of its rarity in humans in the United States and the complexity of diagnostic testing. In this case, hospital staff members who treated the donor were initially unaware of the skunk scratch and attributed his pre-admission signs and symptoms to chronic comorbidities.”
Health officials added that three other patients received corneal tissue from the same infected donor. They all underwent graft removal, received rabies treatment and remained asymptomatic, the CDC reported.
Health officials also reached out to 370 people who could have been in contact with the donor, according to the agency. Forty-six of them were recommended to undergo rabies procedures.
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Health officials said the kidney recipient’s death marks the fourth documented case of rabies transmission through an organ transplant in the U.S. since 1978, emphasizing that the risk of such infections remains extremely low.
Transplant teams are now advised to consult public health officials if a potential donor has recent bites or scratches from rabies-susceptible animals, especially if the donor has had unexplained neurological symptoms.
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However, “no standard guidance currently exists for addressing reported donor animal exposures by transplant teams,” the CDC said.
About 1.4 million Americans receive care for possible rabies exposure annually, and fewer than 10 die from the disease due to effective prevention efforts, according to the agency.
Fox News Digital reached out to the CDC for more information.
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