A patient from Michigan died after getting an organ transplant and contracting rabies. According to the Daily Mail, this happened in a Lucas County, Ohio, hospital in December, per the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. The patient later passed away from the rabies virus in January.
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Patient Dies From Rabies After Organ Transplant
The Mayo Clinic states that rabies is a deadly virus that spreads from the saliva of infected animals to people. It typically happens after an infected animal, such as a bat, coyote, skunk, or raccoon, bites a human.
This is a rare case where "they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ," said the MDHHS, according to CBS. The CDC has now claimed that this is Michigan's first human case of rabies since 2009. They count this as a Michigan case instead of an Ohio one since the resident is from Michigan.
The Toledo report confirmed that it found "no risk to the general public" after "a multi-state public health investigation." Less than 10 people in America die from rabies yearly, according to the CDC. Although rabies vaccines are available to those who seek them, they are "complex, expensive, and limited."
In a statement to People, an MDHHS spokesperson gave more details on this horrific rabies case. "The organ transplant was conducted at an Ohio hospital in December 2024," said spokesperson Lynn Sutfin. "The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services worked closely with the Ohio Department of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the investigation."
Although the CDC managed to confirm the rabies virus, they knew that the organ donor was not from Ohio or Michigan. "No additional information is being provided about the resident or the donor," Sutfin continued.
The real question here is how someone with the rabies virus managed to be eligible for an organ transplant. Are there no tests that doctors run before a transplant to make sure an organ doesn't have any infections or viruses?
Perhaps this is something that doctors cannot account for when doing transplants. Maybe the rabies virus wasn't detectable in the organ when the transplant occurred. Hopefully, the investigation will provide more information on how to avoid this in the future.
