Organ transplants may have spread the dangerous Legionella bacteria for the first time, according to a recent report released Thursday by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In July 2022, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (PADOH) received two reports of laboratory-confirmed cases of Legionnaires’ disease in patients exposed to the same hospital in Philadelphia. Further research confirmed that both patients had undergone one lung transplant from the same donor before the onset of the disease.
The donor, a man between the ages of 30 and 39, died after falling into a river in Pennsylvania last year. He was declared brain dead after rigorous resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful.
The initial case of Legionnaires’ disease occurred in a woman between the ages of 70 and 79 who underwent a right lung transplant in May 2022. Just nine days after the transplant, the patient’s blood results showed an elevated white blood cell count and acute anemia, which led to the need for imaging studies.
1 dead after contracting Legionnaires’ disease after staying at the Atlanta Hotel
After a lung sample was taken in early June, the test was positive for Legionella species. As soon as the doctors discovered Legionella in the lavage sample, they immediately started treatment, and the patient made a full recovery.
The second case involved a man aged between 60 and 69, known as Patient B, who also received a left lung transplant on the same day from the same donor as Patient A. Patient B faced several problems after the surgery, such as the need for an extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and kidney therapy. Fifteen days after the surgery, doctors started antibiotic therapy with doxycycline.
Microscopic enlargement of Legionella pneumophila (photo).
Getty
Although the patient initially recovered, his health deteriorated during his long hospital stay, and he died six months after the transplant operation. The cause of death was respiratory failure due to a blocked airway.
Doctors ran tests on three additional people who received organs from the same donor, but all came back negative for the bacteria. After the infections were discovered, the Pennsylvania Department of Health launched an investigation to identify the source of the bacteria.
The department conducted water tests at the hospital where the transplant operations took place, but found no traces of legionella. Officials gradually began to suspect that the bacteria might have come from a deceased organ donor, given that legionella bacteria can exist naturally in fresh water.
The deceased donor likely contracted the bacteria after inhaling water during a drowning incident. However, one of the limitations noted in the report is that clinical samples from the donors were not available for testing, so the investigators could not confirm whether the donor had Legionella infection before the organ donation.
The bacterium found in Legionnaires’ disease thrives in warm water, and with rising temperatures associated with the climate crisis, significantly more favorable conditions have been created for its growth. The CDC warns that cases of Legionnaires’ disease have increased significantly in the past decade.
In 2022, an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the Bronx borough of New York left one person dead and 18 sick. Then, in August, the county health department shut down a spa in Richmond, California, after two people who used the jacuzzi tub died of Legionnaires’ disease and one became ill.
Categories: Trends
Source: HIS Education