Marylander who died of rabies contracted disease from kidney transplant

[unhappycamper]

http://www.baltimoresun.com/health/bs-md-rabies-death-organ-transplant-20130315,0,2497390.story

Marylander who died of rabies contracted disease from kidney transplant
By Alison Matas, The Baltimore Sun
7:54 p.m. EDT, March 15, 2013

The first Marylander to succumb to rabies since 1976 developed the virus through a kidney transplant that took place more than a year before the Army veteran died of the disease in February, national health and defense officials said Friday.

Tests performed by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention since the Marylander's death showed that the Florida organ donor, a 20-year-old Air Force service member, died of rabies, and the same type of rabies was found in both the donor and the kidney recipient. The transplant occurred at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, confirmed Cynthia Smith, a Defense Department spokeswoman.

Contracting rabies from organ transplant is extraordinarily rare, but other deaths have been reported in the past. Officials and medical experts said it's probably impossible to determine whether a donor has rabies before transplanting an organ.

Both the CDC and Maryland health officials said they would not release any information regarding the genders of the donor or recipient, or the names of medical facilities involved with the case. CDC officials are working with public health officials and health care facilities to investigate how the donor contracted rabies.

[Bay Boy]

1. Did I miss whether or not

the kidney donor was deceased.

[unhappycamper]

2. The donor was deceased. n/t