Patient dies after receiving infected lung transplant

An American who had received a lung transplant died from the coronavirus last fall. The transplant had taken place two months earlier, reports Kaiser Health News relayed by NBC. The patient had received two lungs infected with Covid-19. PCR tests had however been carried out before the operation on the donor, a woman victim of brain damage after a car accident, as on the recipient. These samples were negative, reveals a study published on February 10 in theAmerican Journal of Transplantation.

The virus was only in the lungs

According to Dr. Daniel Kaul, co-author of the report, the patient exhibited symptoms of Covid-19 three days after the transplant, developing a fever and breathing problems. Tests showed signs of a lung infection. The surgeon who handled the transplanted organs was also infected, relays Slate.

New tests were performed on the recipient’s nose, throat and respiratory system. The presence of the coronavirus has only been noted in the lungs. Doctors also tested a sample of the donor’s lung tissue, which came back positive. “All the screening tests that we are capable of doing, we have done,” Daniel Kaul wrote in the study.

Transmission of the virus between donor and recipient organs is rare. It is observed in 1% of transplants. “It seems that for non-pulmonary donors, it is very difficult to transmit the Covid, even if the donor is infected”, reassures Dr. Daniel Kaul, wishing to allay fears about the transplant process, which must continue even during the period of pandemic.