Transplant Recipients May Be Vulnerable to West Nile Virus

Transplant recipients taking immunosuppressive medication may be especially vulnerable to West Nile Virus, doctors reported at the annual scientific meeting of the American Society of Transplantation.

Dr. Debby DeSalvo, a nephrologist at the University of Cincinnati, said two kidney transplant recipients treated there last summer had brain swelling characteristic of the illness, and one died.

DeSalvo said neither of the patients -- both of whom had received a kidney from a living donor -- appeared to have gotten the infection from the transplanted organ.

In both cases, DeSalvo said blood tests for the mosquito-borne illness were negative, but MRIs subsequently showed swelling in the brain characteristic of West Nile Virus.

While the first patient with the illness died two weeks after being admitted, doctors took the second patient off antirejection drugs and enrolled him in a trial of alpha interferon, a drug being tested for West Nile Virus.

DeSalvo said the second patient then quickly recovered, and is now doing well.

Doctors attending the meeting reported similarly finding West Nile Virus had to detect in transplant recipients.

DeSalvo recommended that doctors not trust initial blood tests for the West Nile Virus, and suggested that when physicians suspect a transplant recipient to be infected, they take patients off their immunosuppressive drugs and try them on alpha interferon.

Other Sources: AST