MILWAUKEE, May 24 -- At least six deaths of organ-transplant patients have been linked to a rodent virus, raising questions about whether the microbe may have had an undetected role in other such deaths and whether the germ could spread through blood transfusions.
Health officials believe the deaths are rare cases, but they say the situation merits closer study in light of recent discoveries that rabies and the West Nile virus occasionally spread through donated organs, with deadly consequences.
"We're learning as we go here. This is a new phenomenon," said Matthew J. Kuehnert, assistant director of blood safety for the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We haven't seen any evidence of transfusion-transmitted infection, but that doesn't mean it couldn't happen."
Rhode Island and Massachusetts officials said Monday that they are investigating the deaths of three people who got organs from a female donor whose pet hamster tested positive for the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus, or LCMV. A fourth recipient is said to be recovering.
On Tuesday, health officials in Wisconsin revealed that four transplant recipients who died in December 2003 were the only previously known cases involving the virus.
The cases were not clear-cut -- the organ donor and a woman who received a lung from him in an operation in Minnesota both tested negative for LCMV. But three other transplant patients tested positive for the virus, strongly suggesting the donor had been the source.
The virus usually causes little or no illness in healthy people but can be deadly for those with weak immune systems such as transplant recipients, who take immune-suppressing drugs to keep their bodies from rejecting the new organs.
