Overview
- The Michigan recipient developed neurologic symptoms about five weeks after a December 2024 transplant and died a week after hospitalization in January 2025.
- Investigators traced the virus to an Idaho donor scratched by a skunk weeks before death, and an archived kidney biopsy from the donor tested positive for rabies virus RNA.
- Three people who received the donor’s corneas had the grafts removed and received post-exposure prophylaxis, with one testing positive but none developing symptoms.
- Contact tracing evaluated 357 potential exposures, and 46 individuals, including healthcare workers and the cornea recipients, were advised to receive prophylaxis.
- Rabies testing is not routinely performed on donor organs in the U.S., and this is the fourth documented donor-to-recipient transmission since 1978.