NBC NEWS – A rabid skunk scratched an Idaho resident, setting an exceedingly rare, deadly chain reaction that killed two people — the original bite victim and his organ transplant recipient, federal officials said.
It’s believed to be the fourth “transplant-transmitted rabies event in the United States since 1978,” a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report said last week.
“Investigation suggested a likely three-step transmission chain in which a rabid silver-haired bat infected a skunk, which infected the donor and led to infection of the kidney recipient,” the CDC said.
A Michigan man in December last year “received a left kidney transplant from an Idaho donor at an Ohio hospital” before he died about six weeks later, the CDC said.
The rabies “virus RNA was detected in saliva, nuchal skin, and brain tissue samples” of the recipient, the CDC said …
