category
Dec 9, 2025
Kidney recipient in US dies after transplant from organ donor who had rabies
The Straits Times
WASHINGTON - A man died of rabies after getting a kidney transplant from another man who died of the virus, only the fourth instance in nearly 50 years in which an organ donor passed the virus to a recipient, federal officials said.
The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Dec 4 that an Idaho man was on his rural property in October 2024 when a skunk approached him and scratched him on the shin.
About five weeks later, the man started to hallucinate, have trouble walking and swallowing, and had a stiff neck, according to the CDC report. Two days after his symptoms started, he collapsed of what was presumed to be a heart attack, the report said.
The man was unresponsive and taken to a hospital, where he died. Several of his organs were donated, including his left kidney.
A Michigan man received the donated kidney.
Five weeks after the transplant, he started to experience tremors, weakness, confusion and urinary incontinence, the report said. He was hospitalised a week later with symptoms including a fever, difficulty swallowing and fear of water, which is a telltale sign of rabies, the report said.
After a week in the hospital, he died.
Doctors treating the kidney recipient noted that the man's symptoms were consistent with rabies.
The report said that organ donations are not routinely tested for rabies "because of its rarity in humans in the United States and the complexity of diagnostic testing".
Donors are tested for HIV and several forms of hepatitis, Dr Lara Danziger-Isakov, the director of immunocompromised host infectious diseases at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Centre, said on Dec 5.
"This is an exceptionally rare event," said Dr Danziger-Isakov, who is also a board member for the American Society of Transplantation, a professional association for those working in organ transplants. "Overall, the risk is exceptionally small."
The hospital Dr Danziger-Isakov works for was not involved in the rabies-infected transplant, ac
