BERLIN, Feb 21 (AFP) - A second transplant patient has died in Germany after receiving an organ from a donor infected with rabies, the hospital treating him said Monday.
The latest victim was a 70-year-old man who received a kidney from a 26-year-old woman who is believed to have spent some time in India where rabies is common, the clinic at Hannoversch Muenden in northern Germany announced.
A woman who received a lung transplanted from the same donor died at the weekend and a third patient who received a pancreas and a kidney from the donor is seriously ill and unlikely to survive.
However three other recipients of organs from the donor have so far shown no signs of the deadly disease.
The donor herself died of a heart attack in December.
Rabies can be transmitted to humans through animal bites and is nearly always fatal. A quick vaccination can generally prevent the outbreak of the disease.
The donor's lungs, cornea, kidneys, pancreas and liver were removed after her death and used for patients in several German regions.
The German newsweekly Focus has reported that the donor had shown signs of a serious infection before suffering a heart attack, and therefore her organs should not have been used for transplant purposes.
But Guenter Kirste of the German Organ Transplant Foundation (DSO) said Sunday that the woman had shown no clear symptoms for rabies. The DSO has said since the cases emerged that the donor's organs had been thoroughly tested for bacteria, viruses and tumors before the transplants.
The rabies virus infects the central nervous system. Symptoms include fever and headache and can progress to partial paralysis, hallucinations and fear of water.
Death usually occurs within days of the symptoms appearing.
02/21/2005 15:06 GMT - AFP