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Health and medicine
Rodent virus linked to 6 organ transplant deaths
Associated Press
Published May 25, 2005
MILWAUKEE - At least six deaths of organ transplant patients have now been linked to a rodent virus, raising questions about whether others may have gone undetected and whether the germ also could spread through blood transfusions.
Health officials say the deaths are rare cases, but say the situation merits closer study in light of recent discoveries that rabies and West Nile virus occasionally spread through donated organs.
Rhode Island and Massachusetts officials said they are investigating the deaths of three people who got organs from a donor whose pet hamster tested positive for lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus.
Tuesday, Wisconsin officials said four transplant recipients died in the only previously known cases involving the virus in December 2003. One of those four deaths, however, was not a clear-cut case of the virus, officials said.
[Last modified May 25, 2005, 00:41:07]
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