(NewsNation) — A Michigan man died of rabies after receiving a kidney transplant from a man who died from the virus after being scratched by a skunk, according to a recent report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reported an Idaho man was scratched by a skunk while protecting a kitten on his rural property in late October 2024. Around five weeks later, the man started to exhibit confusion, had difficulty walking and swallowing, experienced hallucinations and had a stiff neck.
Two days after the man’s symptoms arose, he was found unresponsive after presumed cardiac arrest and taken to the hospital, where he died days later. Many of his organs were recovered from his body, including his left kidney.
The man wasn’t tested for rabies before his left kidney was donated, as “rabies is excluded from routine donor pathogen testing because of its rarity in humans in the United States and the complexity of diagnostic testing,” according to the report.
The kidney recipient
A Michigan man received the donated kidney and around five weeks later began to experience tremors, lower extremity weakness, confusion and urinary incontinence. A week later, he was hospitalized with fever, fear of water, difficulty swallowing and autonomic instability: Telltale signs of rabies infection. He died one week into his hospitalization.
Michigan health officials subsequently interviewed the recipient’s family, and they made no mention of contact with animals.
Doctors reviewed the Donor Risk Assessment Interview questionnaire and noted that the donor’s family had reported a skunk scratched him.
Upon suspecting rabies in the kidney recipient, further investigations revealed “a likely three-step transmission chain in which a rabid silver-haired bat infected a skunk, which infected the donor and led to infection of the kidney recipient,” the report said.
370 people contacted for potential exposure
Those who may have been exposed to the donor or the kidney recipient have been contacted, around 370 people, and 46 were recommended to undergo postexposure prophylaxis, the treatment for potential rabies exposure. Tissue from the donor was given to three recipients who underwent PEP and haven’t developed rabies symptoms.
“In this case, hospital staff members who treated the donor were initially unaware of the skunk scratch and attributed his pre-admission signs and symptoms to chronic co-morbidities,” the report said.
Rabies is a deadly viral disease that can spread to humans through contact with infected animals. As rabies progresses, it worsens in severity from flu-like symptoms to hallucinations and difficulty swallowing. Once symptoms appear, the illness is almost always fatal.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.