This is a first - as far as we know (and not the way one wants to see one's residency hospital in the news):
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2658521 "Three people have died from rabies transmitted by organ transplants they received in Texas, the first time the deadly disease has spread this way, U.S. officials said Thursday. The officials said they'll look into whether transplant organs should be screened for rabies. But transplant experts said they doubted a test could confirm rabies in the necessary time to perform transplants... "...In all, five people died in the incident -- four in Texas, two of them Texans. It began when an Arkansas man died in Texas and donated his liver, kidneys and lungs. Surgeons performed transplants the next day on three patients at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas and one patient at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Hospital. "The three Baylor patients died of rabies a month to six weeks after being released. The fourth patient, who received two lungs, died of complications during surgery. The infections went undetected because the donor had shown no symptoms of rabies, such as fever or headaches, before dying of a brain hemorrhage at Christus St. Michael Health Care Center in Texarkana. It is not clear whether he died of rabies. "Organ donors are tested for other diseases, including hepatitis B and C, HIV/AIDS, and syphilis. Those tests return results within six hours and are part of the consent process. Transplantations need to be done in four hours for lungs, six hours for hearts and 24 hours for liver and kidneys... "...Rabies is usually confirmed by autopsy, but there is a test that typically returns results in 24 to 48 hours, said Dr. David Tweardy, a professor of infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. He said it might be possible to accelerate results from the test, which involves a scalpel biopsy and a dye that lights up in the presence of the virus... "...Rabies is extremely rare in the United States, killing only one or two people a year. There were no human cases in 2001, the latest year for which figures are available. The disease, transmitted through an animal bite or contact with the secretions of infected animals, is almost always fatal if not treated before symptoms begin. Early treatment consists of a shot of immune plasma followed by five doses of a vaccine over a 28-day period. "Symptoms may not appear for at least a month after a bite; they include a stiff neck, seizures, and anxious and disoriented states. The transplant victims developed respiratory problems, lethargy, seizures and neurological symptoms after being released. The virus was likely in the nerves of the transplanted organs, said Cohen. It travels through the nervous system, not the bloodstream. "The Arkansas donor probably was infected by a bat, CDC officials said..." Debbi who worries more about hanta virus, given that her cats are bringing home ~ one field mouse/day, and hopes that her presumed bout of West Nile last year means she can't get it again... __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail is new and improved - Check it out! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
