In Other Journals

Three recipients of transplanted organs from a donor who died of a presumptive subarachnoid haemorrhage died a few weeks later themselves — from rabies.1 According to the US Centers for Disease Control (www.cdc.gov) these are the first reported cases of rabies transmission via solid organ transplantation; rabies has been transmitted previously via corneal transplants. Later, it was reported that a segment of iliac artery recovered from the donor had been used in another liver transplantation procedure; the recipient also died of rabies a few weeks after the procedure.