German dies after given lung from donor with rabies

February 20, 2005

Source: Reuters

HANOVER, Germany, Feb 20 (Reuters) - A young woman who is believed to have contracted rabies after receiving a lung from an infected organ donor has died, a German hospital official said on Sunday.

A spokesman at a university hospital in the west German city of Hanover said the cause of death had not yet been determined, but that it was probably linked to the rabies infection.

Two other transplant patients in Marburg and Hannoversch-Muenden who also received organs from the infected donor remained in critical condition, he said.

Authorities in Germany said last week they suspected the three people may have been infected with rabies following transplants from a woman thought to have contracted the illness before her death.

Doctors believe the donor, who died of heart failure after being brought to hospital in December 2004, may have contracted the virus during a holiday in India.

Three other patients in Mainz und Heidelberg who received organs from the woman were doing well and receiving treatment to prevent illness, authorities said.

It would be the first time the virus had been transmitted via transplantation in Germany, where an estimated 100,000 organs have been transplanted since 1963, the German Organ Transplantation Foundation has said.

Rabies is a serious infection of the nervous system and is usually transmitted to humans and animals by a bite from an infected animal. Once clinical rabies develops, it is almost always fatal.

Copyright © 2005 Reuters.

This article posted March 30, 2005.