Three Die in Us After Organ Transplants From Rabies Victim

Three transplant recipients have died of rabies after receiving the liver and kidneys of an Arkansas man infected by a bat, the Centres for Disease Control reported.

In what is believed to be the first case of its kind, the rabies virus was transmitted through infected organs transplanted into patients in Alabama, Texas and Oklahoma.

"This is a very sad, tragic situation," Mitchell Cohen, an infectious disease expert at the CDC, said. "This has never happened before, but we need to do whatever we can to prevent it from happening again."

The link between the deaths became clear only this week after a series of investigations. The source of the virus, extremely rare in humans in the US, was tracked to to a previously healthy Arkansas man who was admitted to hospital two months ago complaining of fever and confusion.

The patient showed no symptoms of rabies, and doctors initially believed he was suffering from a stroke.

It later emerged that he had had rabies, possibly from a bat bite. At times, rabies does not develop for up to a year following the bite from a rabid animal.

On May 4, following the man's death from a brain haemorrhage, the man's kidneys and liver were transplanted into patients in Dallas. His lungs were sent to Alabama, and used in a transplant, but the patient died soon after from complications following surgery.

The three survivors developed rabies symptoms within four weeks of surgery, becoming confused and lethargic and suffering muscle spasms. The liver recipient died on June 7; the kidney recipients died on June 8 and June 21.

Rabies testing is not routine for US organ donors, although hospitals screen for HIV and other diseases. CDC officials said they were trying to contact anyone who might have come into contact with the infected patients, and were reviewing testing protocols for organ donors.