Posted on 02/16/2005 12:20:16 PM PST by Born Conservative
Feb. 16, 2005 - Three hospital patients in Germany appear to have been infected with rabies through organ transplants and are in critical condition, a medical foundation said Wednesday.
Three others who received transplants from the same donor, a woman who died of a heart attack late last year, are doing fine, the German Foundation for Organ Transplants said.
The donor showed no rabies symptoms at the time of her death, although a recent examination of her brain showed typical signs of the disease, the group said. How the woman may have contracted rabies was unclear, but the group noted that she had been in India in October. Although rare in developed countries, rabies kills thousands of people each year in developing nations.
The critically ill patients, hospitalized in the cities of Hanover and Marburg, received the donor's lungs, kidneys and a pancreas. All showed rabies symptoms, the group said. A patient in Heidelberg who received the liver, as well as two patients in Mainz who received her corneas, were in good health.
"Something like this has never happened in Germany," foundation head Guenter Kirste said in a statement. "Unfortunately there is no way to medically rule out such rare infections, despite thorough tests of the donor."
All health professionals who were involved in the transplants or caring for the patients have been identified and inoculated, Kirste said.
Most human cases of rabies arise from dog bites, though many animals can carry the disease. Symptoms include fever, violent spasms, panic, hallucinations and coma leading eventually to death.
Four people in the United States died of rabies last year after receiving infected organs from a donor in Arkansas. That donor had shown no signs of the disease before his death from a brain hemorrhage.
Interesting. Had the Arkansas donor with rabies also recently traveled out of the U.S.? Perhaps it is a new version of the rabies virus.
How can they test the donor if the donor is still alive?
I thought it could only be detected in animals after death.Can rabies in humans be detected before death?
An awful disease---this is very frightening.
I believe they can do a brain biopsy to determine rabies.
Have there been any reports that Hillary Rotten Clinton, aka the Hildabeast, volunteered as an organ donor?
Did they get the organs from Abbie Normal?
Rabies can be "detected" before death but not confirmed. The problem comes from the length of time it takes to show symptoms. It can take 6 months or more before a person sees a doc about the symptoms.
When I worked in labs that did rabies confirmations, everybody had to get the shots. It's not as bad as it used to be. Maybe organ recipients should get them (don't if it would interfere with the transplants).
just DAMN
Easy-peasy! The organs were donated by an American democrat, probably one with close ties to the Clintons!
Skin biopsies from the neck and conjunctival smears
(impressions) as well as studies on serum.
Thanks for the information.
Organ transplant recipients are on immunosuppressive drugs, so I don't think the shot would help (even if they had antibodies prior to getting the transplant, the medications would prevent the body from activating them in the presence of the rabies virus).
please add me to your ping list. Thanks.
Do you have a source for that? I don't see it noted in the article that I posted.
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