DOI: 10.6002/ect.2017.0046
From the [SUP]1[/SUP]Pediatric Department, Al Jahra Hospital, and the [SUP]2[/SUP]Hamed Al-Essa Organ Transplant Center, Ibn Sina Hospital, Kuwait
Acknowledgements: The authors declare that they have no sources of funding for this study, and they have no conflicts of interest to declare.
Corresponding author: Bassam Saeed, Pediatric Department, Al Jahra Hospital, Postal Code 01753, Jahra, Kuwait Rabies is usually transmitted to humans through bites of infected animals; however, it can rarely be transmitted through deceased donor organs or tissues when not suspected. Here, we report a case of rabies transmission in a child. The child was a 5-year-old girl who was admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit with encephalitis of unexplained cause 3.5 months after she received a kidney transplant from a deceased donor. The laboratory and imaging studies did not reveal any explanation for her rapidly declining clinical and neurologic condition, which ended with death 4 days after admission. Death of another recipient from the same donor led to an investigation that revealed rabies as the cause. Both corneas were explanted from other recipients to prevent further death. Polymerase chain reaction sequence analysis of the corneas was consistent with a rabies virus from the same donor?s state of residence. Rabies transmission, although rare, should be suspected when a donor comes from or has visited endemic countries. Donors with unclear causes of death should be rejected.
Key words: Deceased donor, Donor-derived infection, Encephalitis of unexplained cause
