NEW YORK, Oct. 7 (Xinhuanet) -- Three people who received organs from a donor in the Bronx, New York have contracted the West Nile Virus, local media reported Friday.
The report quoted officials with the city's health department as saying that the organ donor died of a traumatic head injury in August. His kidneys and liver were transplanted into three recipients in the city, and the lungs went to a New York resident hospitalized in Pennsylvania.
They said both the liver and lung transplant recipients became sick in September and fell into comas.
One of the patients who received a kidney has tested positive but has no symptoms. The other has tested negative.
The donor lived near a park in the Bronx where West Nile Virus had been detected in mosquitoes, said city health officials.
Under the current regulation, screening of organ donors for West Nile Virus is not required.
This is only the second report of the virus' transmission through a transplant in the United States since 2002, health officials said.
Infection with West Nile is often so mild that people are unaware of it. In instances of illness, the infection causes flu-like symptoms, including fever, headache and body aches. Rarer is West Nile encephalitis, a brain inflammation that can lead to death. Enditem
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