Woman dies of rabies after lung transplant

A German woman has died of rabies weeks after receiving a lung from a donor who was later found to be infected with the disease, hospital officials in Hanover said today.

Two other patients who also received organs from the same 26-year-old donor remain in hospital in a critical condition in the cities of Marburg and Hannoversch Muenden. The donor showed no symptoms of rabies at the time of her death, health officials have said.

Doctors at the Hanover School of Medicine had been treating the woman, who died late last night, with the antiviral drug ribavirin and a combination of other medicines similar to a cocktail credited with saving the life of a rabies-infected teenager in the United States.

Despite the treatment, the woman’s condition deteriorated, said Arndt Schweizer a spokesman for the hospital.

Three more patients who received organs from the same donor are still in good health.

Although rare in developed countries, rabies kills thousands of people each year in developing nations. Most human cases arise from dog bites, though many animals can carry the disease.

Rabies symptoms include fever, violent spasms, panic, hallucinations and coma leading eventually to death.