Health authorities in the United States have confirmed an extraordinarily rare chain of rabies transmission that resulted in the death of a Michigan man who had unknowingly received an infected kidney from a donor.
According to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the case involved a “three-step transmission chain” beginning with a bat, then a skunk, the organ donor, and finally the transplant recipient — an event officials described as “exceptionally rare.”
The Michigan patient underwent a kidney transplant in December 2024. Five weeks later, he was hospitalised with tremors, confusion and muscle weakness. He died shortly after, and rabies was confirmed postmortem. His family maintained he had no recent contact with animals, prompting investigators to examine the donor.
The donor, an Idaho man, had been scratched by a skunk in October 2024 while protecting a kitten. His family recalled the skunk approaching “with predatory aggression,” and although he did not believe he had been bitten, he did receive a scratch on the shin.
Five weeks later, the donor was found unresponsive and was declared brain-dead. Initial laboratory tests did not detect rabies, but further analysis of a biopsy sample from the donated kidney revealed infection with a strain consistent with the silver-haired bat variant — confirming the fatal transmission.
The CDC said this is only the fourth documented instance of rabies spreading through organ transplantation in the United States since 1978. Because human rabies is so rare, routine donor screening does not include the disease.
Three other individuals who received corneal grafts from the same donor had their tissue implants removed immediately and received preventive rabies treatment. All remain symptom-free.
