Michigan patient dies after contracting rabies through transplanted organ

A Michigan resident who received a transplant in December died after having been infected with rabies from the new organ, the state health department said Wednesday.

“A public health investigation determined they contracted rabies through the transplanted organ,” Lynn Sutfin, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, said in a statement.

The patient received the transplant at a hospital in Ohio in December, then died in January, the department said. The statement did not include information about identity of the recipient or the type of organ that was transplanted. The donor was not a resident of Michigan or Ohio, it said.

Sutfin said the Michigan and Ohio health departments “worked closely” together and with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on the investigation into the patient’s death. The CDC’s Rabies Laboratory confirmed the diagnosis.

“Health officials worked together to ensure that people, including health care providers, who were in contact with the Michigan individual were assessed for possible exposure to rabies,” the statement added. “Post exposure preventive care, if appropriate, has been provided.”

The department declined to provide NBC News with additional information. Ohio’s Health Department and the CDC did not respond to requests for comment.

Rabies can spread to humans if they come into contact with saliva or blood from infected animals, such as bats, raccoons, skunks or stray dogs. It is not always clear right away that a person has contracted rabies, as the initial symptoms are similar to those of the flu, including fever, headache and nausea. As the illness progresses, patients then experience difficulty swallowing, excessive salivation and hallucinations.

If a person does not seek medical care quickly after having been scratched or bitten by a potentially infected animal, rabies is fatal. Before 1960, several hundred people died of it each year, but the annual number has shrunk to fewer than 10 in recent years, according to the CDC.

Potential organ donors in the United States are screened for viruses, bacteria and other infections; however, rabies is not usually among those tests, in part because the test for it takes too long and because the infection is so rare in people.

A patient who received a kidney transplant in 2013 similarly died after having contracted rabies through the organ. The donor was found to have died of rabies in Florida, but the cause of death was discovered only after an investigation into the recipient’s death. Three other patients also received organs from the donor.

In 2004, three transplant recipients died of rabies after they received organs from an infected donor in Arkansas.