Organ transplant patient in Michigan dies from rabies
Organ transplant patient in Michigan dies from rabies
Health officials confirm that a Michigan resident who received an organ transplant has died from rabies.
The patient had the organ transplanted at a hospital in Ohio in December and died in January, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson Lynn Sutfin said.
A subsequent investigation that also involved the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Ohio Department of Health determined the patient got rabies from the donated organ. Sutfin did not specify which organ was transplanted.
You're viewing a single thread.
Does this mean that whoever dontated the organ also died from rabies without having been accurately diagnosed, or does it mean that someone was carrying rabies?
If someone died of rabies, it would certainly be known that it was rabies. The symptoms are pretty obvious and it's not likely it would be mistaken for anything else.
More likely, they were infected and died of some other cause before symptoms started showing, which can take as little as two weeks or potentially over a year.
There's even some evidence that it can be longer. I found one that was a 6 year incubation.
Jesus H. Christ, that's daunting...
Yeah, its a really crazy virus. If you get bit or scratched by a mammal, that you don't know for certain is vaccinated, get the vaccine.
Agreed, same deal as with tetanus. The last time that I got cut by rusty metal and went to the hospital, the intake nurses seemed annoyed with me for showing up with such a minor injury (two stitches needed only). When the MD checked my records, they told me that it was a good thing I'd come in for the stitches and tetanus shot, because my previous one's span of effect would have ended at a few months earlier. You can't take this shit for granted, if you blow it off or delay treatment it could kill you. No lockjaw for me, thank you very much.
But also, tetanus is commonly misunderstood. Scapes and scratches are extremely unlikely to result in tetanus, regardless of what causes it. Rust isn’t any more likely to transmit tetanus.
Tetanus is an anaerobic microbe that can only really survive in deep cuts and punctures where air isn’t able to reach the wound. The spores are basically everywhere… But the spores only bloom and become dangerous when they come into contact with blood. Once they bloom, oxygen will kill them. So you don’t need to worry about it for surface-level scratches and scrapes, because the air will kill off any blooms. The only reason it is commonly associated with rust is because one of the more common puncture wounds is from stepping on rusty things.
Huh, interesting. Thanks for the info, I was under the misconception that it was directly tied to the rusty metal itself.
It’s an extremely common misconception, and why I bothered pointing it out at all. People will get a scratch from rust, and immediately panic about tetanus. In reality, tetanus is basically everywhere. Rust is simply a good carrier because it has lots of rough surface area and is good at poking people.
Anything deep enough to warrant stitches should absolutely be treated in a hospital imo.
Can confirm, even minor effects are lifelong and annoying AF.
I used to live in an old farmhouse. Drafty as fuck. There was a bat who kept getting inside every few months, and I'd just shoo it out or catch it and let it go outside. One night it got inside and in the course of looking for a way out, it accidentally scratched my daughter. It barely even broke her skin—there was the tiniest mark where blood welled just the slightest bit.
So when I captured him, I had to take him in for testing. Which I hated, knowing it was a death sentence, but you can't take your chances with rabies at fucking all.
Of course, the bat wasn't rabid, my daughter was just fine, and we probably had to suffer a few more mosquitoes that year. That was the last time we had any bats in our house.
Now, we have a very nice back yard with a deck we use a lot in the evenings and I wish I had my little bat buddy back to eat all the tasty bugs during the summer.
That was absolutely the right thing to do for your family. It sucks about your bat buddy though.
If you want to help bats, you can put up a bat house. There are plans for ones online to build one yourself. Bat are really struggling, between white nose fungus and humans their populations are really declining.
And keep a lookout for bats in need, when they get hurt they can be help. There might be a licensed bat rescue near you that could save them. I found a bat in my attic that had fallen into a bucket of water. It was winter and there was ice in with him! I was able to get him in a box and took him to a rehab the next day. He made a full recovery and was released that spring.
Bucket the bat being looked over by the rehaberLove that story, thank you so much for sharing! I do want to build a bat box this year.
Yeah, imagine getting rabies symptoms, knowing you're going to die, and having no memory of any event that may have led to the infection.
A literal nightmare scenario.
"You're 100% going to die, but we need to know when you caught it in case it was incidentally passed to someone else."
shrugs
For what it’s worth, I saw a comment on Reddit that pretty much said this. They heard it from a nurse who works in Ohio talking about the case.
They were more than likely infected but not yet showing symptoms. Carrying rabies but not a carrier of rabies. If you get bit in the foot, it takes awhile to reach your brain.
Especially if they’re tall.