[neverdem]

1. A local vet was exposed to rabies when a rabid cat bit her during a routine examination. The cat had been transported as a pet across the Mexican border sans quarantine. Perhaps the man was similarly bitten and assumed that it was a "normal" cat (or dog, raccoon or oppossum) bite?

The article stated, "Dr. Mitchell L. Cohen, an expert on infectious diseases at the center, said in a telephone news conference that tests performed on Wednesday in Atlanta identified a strain of the rabies virus commonly found among bats in all four patients."

A common expression in medicine is "never say never in medicine".

2. Is it possible for tetanus to be transmitted in blood transfusions and organ transplants? Are blood and organ donors screened for tetanus and if so, would the tetanus antibodies from long ago vaccines give a predictable yet false reading?

Not that I'm aware of such modes of transmission. Anything may be possible, but from what I remember spores of Clostridium Tetani are dormant all over the place, but if you get a deep enough wound in which there are anaerobic conditions, then you could be SOL if you didn't get the "Td" booster immunization within the last ten years. IIRC, the spores change and start to produce a toxin. The hour is too late, and I'll take any help here. I never could type, and it's time to retire.

[Born Conservative]

Per the 2003 Red Book: "This organism is a wound contaminant that causes neither tissue destruction nor an inflammatory response. The vegetative form of C. tetani produces a potent plasmid-encoded exotoxin (tetanospasmin), which binds to gangliosides at the myoneural junction of skeletal muscle and on neuronal membranes in the spinal cord, blocking inhibitory pulses to motor neurons." and "Wounds, recognized and unrecognized, are the sites at which the organism multiplies and elaborates toxin. Contaminated wounds, especially those with devitalized tissue and deep-puncture trauma, are at greatest risk".

It would appear that tetanus would be unlikely to be spread via transplant and blood transfusions.