A Cluster of Fatal Tick-borne Encephalitis Virus Infection in Organ Transplant Setting

<span class="paragraphSection"><div class="boxTitle">Abstract</div><div class="boxTitle">Background.</div>Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) infection has become a major health problem in Europe and is currently a common cause of viral brain infection in many countries. Encephalitis in transplant recipients, althrough rare, is becoming a recognized complication. Our study provides the first description of transmission of TBEV through transplantation of solid organs.<div class="boxTitle">Methods.</div>Three patients who received solid organ transplants from a single donor (2 received kidney, and 1 received liver) developed encephalitis 17–49 days after transplantation and subsequently died. Blood and autopsy tissue samples were tested by next-generation sequencing (NGS) and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).<div class="boxTitle">Results.</div>All 3 recipients were first analyzed in autopsy brain tissue samples and/or cerebrospinal fluid by NGS, which yielded 24–52 million sequences per sample and 9–988 matched TBEV sequences in each patient. The presence of TBEV was confirmed by RT-PCR in all recipients and in the donor, and direct sequencing of amplification products corroborated the presence of the same viral strain.<div class="boxTitle">Conclusions.</div>We demonstrated transmission of TBEV by transplantation of solid organs. In such a setting, TBEV infection may be fatal, probably due to pharmacological immunosuppression. Organ donors should be screened for TBEV when coming from or visiting endemic areas.</span>

from #AlexandrosSfakianakis via Alexandros G.Sfakianakis on Inoreader http://ift.tt/2pcoRGw
via IFTTT