An investigation is underway into the death of a Maryland man, believed to have died from the rabies virus and one of three people who received an organ transplant from a single donor.
Florida Department of Health said Friday, the organ donor, who lived in North Carolina, is believed to have contracted the rabies virus before relocating to Florida. It is unknown how the man contracted the disease.
Testing for rabies was not performed at the time the donor died and rabies was only recently confirmed as the cause of death of the Maryland man.
The Centers for Disease control was called in to determine if the cause of the rabies infection of the man in Maryland was linked to his kidney transplant. That’s when CDC officials discovered the same strain of rabies in tissues from both the organ donor and the recipient who died, ABC news reported.
DOH said, the type of rabies virus found in both donor and recipient is of raccoon origin, and can infect not only raccoons, but also wild and domestic animals. In the United States, only one person has ever died from this type of rabies virus.
The three other individuals who received organs from the donor, including one Florida resident, have been identified and are currently being evaluated by health care professionals and given anti-rabies vaccinations.
DOH is working with local county health departments to assess the risk of individuals who had direct contact with the donor and transplanted tissue and may need rabies post-exposure treatment as a result of the exposure.
Rabies is a preventable viral disease most often transmitted through the bite of a rabid animal.
DOH is partnering with the Centers for Disease Control on the multi-state epidemiological investigation.
