Overview
- The CDC linked a Michigan kidney recipient’s fatal rabies to an Idaho donor after archived kidney tissue from the donor tested positive for rabies virus RNA.
- The donor had been scratched by a skunk weeks before dying, and laboratory results indicated a bat-associated strain consistent with a bat–skunk–donor–recipient transmission chain.
- Three people who received corneal grafts from the same donor had the grafts removed and received post-exposure prophylaxis, and one cornea tested positive for rabies.
- Public health officials reviewed 357 potential contacts tied to the donor and recipient and recommended post-exposure prophylaxis for 46 individuals.
- Transplant-transmitted rabies is extraordinarily rare in the U.S., with only four donor-associated events documented since 1978, and the donor’s heart and lungs were used only for training, not transplantation.