Fast-breaking News from AABB PulsePoints
	The following has been reproduced from the July 2, 2004 AABB PulsePoints, an electronic news alert provided by the American Association of Blood Banks.

July 2, 2004
No. 647

Rabies Transmitted Through Solid Organ Transplant

AABB PulsePoints

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued a press release on July 1, 2004, confirming the first known cases of rabies transmission through solid organ transplantation. Three patients died of rabies after receiving organs from a single donor.  All of the infected persons had a strain of rabies common to bats, although CDC has not yet confirmed the route of infection for the donor.

During yesterday’s teleconference to discuss the issue, health officials said rabies is not a threat to the blood supply because the disease travels through the nerves and does not enter the vascular system.  "There is not a presence of the virus [that causes rabies] in blood, so there is not a risk of transmitting the disease through a blood transfusion," said Mitch Cohen, MD, director of CDC's Coordinating Center for Infectious Diseases.

According to the press release, “Rabies is an acute, fatal disease that most often results from a bite of a rabid mammal.  Rarely, if ever, do non-bite exposures, including scratches, contamination of an open wound, or direct mucus membrane contact with infectious material (such as saliva or neuronal tissue) cause rabies.  Although rabies transmission has occurred previously through cornea transplants, this is the first report of rabies transmission via solid organ transplantation.”

CDC reports that, “The organ donor, an Arkansas resident, had undergone routine donor eligibility screening and testing.  Rabies testing is not part of the routine screening process.  Lungs, kidneys, and liver were recovered and later transplanted on May 4 into four recipients, one of whom (the lung transplant patient) died during transplant surgery.  No other organs or tissues were recovered from the donor.”

To view the CDC press release and a list of hospitals involved in the case, visit:  www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/pressrel/r040701.htm. 

To view CDC’s July 1 MMWR discussing this case, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm53d701a1.htm.

To view the transcript or to listen to the July 1 teleconference, visit: http://www.cdc.gov/od/oc/media/.

For more information from CDC on rabies, visit: www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies.