CDC investigates rare rabies transmission after Michigan transplant patient dies, tracing infection to donor scratched by skunk while protecting kitten.
One Michigan man has died after contracting rabies from a donated kidney, prompting federal health officials to examine one of the rarest forms of disease transmission seen in the United States. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the case represents only the fourth known instance of rabies spread through an organ transplant nationwide since 1978.
The patient, who underwent a kidney transplant at an Ohio hospital in December 2024, initially showed no complications. But about five weeks later, he developed tremors, weakness in his legs, confusion, and urinary incontinence. His condition quickly deteriorated, leading to hospitalization, ventilation, and ultimately death. Postmortem testing identified rabies—an outcome that puzzled investigators because the recipient had no known contact with animals.
Health officials then turned their attention to the organ donor, a man from Idaho whose sudden medical decline had gone largely unexplained. According to the CDC, a review of the Donor Risk Assessment Interview revealed that the donor had been scratched by a skunk weeks before his death.
Family members later clarified that the incident occurred in October 2025, on the donor’s rural property. While holding a kitten in a shed, he confronted an aggressive skunk that appeared to target the small animal. He managed to fend off the skunk, briefly knocking it unconscious, but suffered a bleeding scratch on his shin. He did not believe he had been bitten and did not seek medical attention.
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About five weeks later, he became disoriented, struggled to swallow and walk, and experienced hallucinations. He was found unresponsive at home after a presumed cardiac arrest. Although he was revived and hospitalized, he never regained consciousness. Doctors ultimately declared him brain-dead and proceeded with organ donation.
Initial laboratory tests on the donor were negative for rabies. However, after the transplant recipient fell ill, follow-up testing of kidney tissue detected a strain consistent with silver-haired bat rabies. Investigators concluded that a bat had likely infected the skunk, which then infected the donor, creating a rare three-step chain of transmission.
Three additional patients who received the donor’s corneas were immediately treated with rabies Post-Exposure Prophylaxis. All have remained symptom-free, the CDC said.
The agency emphasized that rabies transmission through organ donation is extraordinarily uncommon, and that routine donor testing does not typically include rabies because of the disease’s rarity in humans and the complexity of confirming infection.