Michigan resident dies of a donated kidney tainted with rabies

Usually, the life -saving procedure ended with an incredibly rare type of death. According to local health officers and the centers for the control and prevention of diseases, a person has recently died of a rabies infection agreed by the kidney of a deceased donor.

Wtol, media based in Toledo, Ohio, first reported At the unusual death on Wednesday, which was confirmed by health officials in Michigan and Ohio, as well as by CDC. Officials say that no one else is at risk of rabies from the tainted procedure.

“The cause of the death is rabies and complications,” Karl Schmidt, a deputy coroner in the Coronor’s cabinet of Lucas County in front of WTOL. “The diagnosis was confirmed by sending tissue to CDC.”

Rabbit is a virus that can infect the brain and spinal cord of most mammals. This is scandalous for a practical death sentence after the infected begins to show signs of disease, such as aggression, disorientation and a strong fear of water. Symptoms may take weeks to occur in humans, and death can almost always be prevented if someone receives timely treatment before it happens. Post -exposure prevention is a combination of rabies vaccine and donated antibodies.

The virus usually spreads through the saliva of infected animals, often from scratches or bites. The widespread pet vaccination programs and improved animal control have made rabies a rare occurrence in much of the world, less than 10 deaths are reported annually in the United States, but Americans are still sometimes caught rabies, but usually from bats Or another infected wildlife. Even more often, a fatal case of rabies transplanted.

The last such widely reported death in the US seems to have occurred in 2013For example, with the participation of a resident of Maryland (other people who have received bodies from the deceased donor have received prevention after exposure). In 2004, a four -death cluster in Texas was backward to a decreased donor. Related to a rabel transplant is a a bigger problem In China, where rabies are more commonly reported in general, but still very rarely.

Donors and their organs are routinely tested for potentially serious infections or other diseases that could be transmitted to the recipient. But in the 2013 investigation of the case, the CDC noted that donors usually have not been tested For rabies, if you are not suspected to have it. In the earlier cases of the United States, none of the donor of the deceased was initially thought to have been killed by rabies (in retrospect, they were probably).

The recipient in this last case received his or her transplant in December 2024 and died of his infection in January 2025. Although the person suffered his job in Ohio, they lived in Michigan, which made this the first human case of rabies documented in the last country of 2009.

Health officials have conducted an investigation into the matter and have determined that there is no additional risk of rabies from the exposure. The Medical Center of the University of Toledo, where the procedure was performed, also said that no more issues were identified with how the transplant was performed.

“The healthcare system works closely with public health authorities and conducted a thorough examination of this case, which found that all the best practices and standard safety protocols were adequately met,” the WTOL statement said.

In other words, this seems extremely rare, but nevertheless a tragic occurrence of a freak.