In a recent case in Michigan, a person died after receiving a kidney transplant infected with the rabies virus, as shown in the image. (Image credit: KATERYNA KON/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY via Getty Images)
In an “extremely rare” case, a man has died from rabies after receiving an organ transplant at an Ohio medical facility.
The unnamed Michigan resident received a kidney transplant at the University of Toledo Medical Center (UTMC) in Ohio last December, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) spokeswoman Lynn Sutphin said, according to the AP. He died in January 2025.
This is the first reported case of rabies in a person in Michigan since 2009. “Human-to-human transmission of rabies is extremely rare, although there have been isolated cases associated with organ transplants,” UTMC said in a statement, according to local news outlet WTOL 11.
Rabies is a fatal disease caused by the rabies virus, which attacks the central nervous system of mammals, including humans. The virus is usually transmitted through the saliva of an infected animal through bites and open wounds such as scratches.
Rabies is almost always fatal once symptoms appear. The time from infection to the onset of symptoms can vary from weeks to months, but symptoms usually appear more quickly if the wound is closer to the brain. Symptoms initially resemble the flu (fever, headache, weakness) but then progress to neurological disorders such as confusion, hallucinations, paralysis, hydrophobia (fear of water), and eventually coma and death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), fewer than 20 people ever survive the onset of rabies symptoms. The CDC estimates that about 10 people die from rabies each year in the United States.
According to the CDC, the vast majority of rabies cases in the United States are linked to contact with bats, raccoons, skunks, and foxes. In the United States, 7 out of 10 people who die from rabies are infected by bats, while worldwide, domestic dogs account for more than 95% of the estimated 70,000 rabies deaths each year.
The Michigan man's rabies was confirmed by the CDC's Rabies Lab. The CDC said in a statement that the organ donor was exposed to rabies from a wild animal in Idaho five weeks before his death and his organ was transplanted, ABC News reported. The donor did not die with “traditional symptoms of rabies,” and he did not seek medical care or notify public health officials after exposure to the animal.
After an animal bite, rabies can be prevented with post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP). This involves immediately washing the wound with soap and water for at least 15 minutes and receiving four or five doses of the rabies vaccine within 14 days of the bite. The vaccine helps the immune system produce antibodies to the rabies virus. If a person has never been vaccinated against rabies, they are also given rabies immune globulin (RIG) on the day of the bite, which provides immediate passive immunity while the vaccine triggers the body's own immune response.
Each year, approximately 800,000 people receive medical care for rabies from local or state health departments across the United States.
There have been several cases of rabies transmission following organ transplants in the past. A 2005 study in the New England Journal of Medicine reported on four recipients of kidneys, a liver, and part of an artery who died because the donor contracted rabies from a bat, and a 2020 study in the journal Transplantation found that a 5-year-old girl and another recipient died of rabies after receiving a kidney transplant.
Other organ recipients saved
“In addition to the donor's kidney, doctors implanted corneal grafts from the donor's eyes three times
Sourse: www.livescience.com
