CDC: Transplant Parasite Disease Found

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Thursday, March 14, 2002 9:42 PM

CDC: Transplant Parasite Disease Found

 

 

CDC: Transplant Parasite Disease Found

By ERIN McCLAM, Associated Press Writer

March 15, 2002, 12:24 AM EST

 

ATLANTA -- Three transplant patients contracted a dangerous parasitic disease

from their new organs in the first such documented cases in the United States,

the government said Thursday. Two of the three women died.

 

A second study also released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

turned up 26 bacterial infections traced to tissue grafts that had come from

cadavers in the United States.

 

The CDC said the graft-related infections show an urgent need to update federal

regulations and industry standards for preventing contamination.

 

In the report involving the parasitic disease, all of the organs came from the

cadaver of a Central American immigrant who was apparently infected with T.

cruzi, The parasite causes Chagas disease, which was previously confined to

Latin America. The disease can cause heart irregularities.

 

The CDC said it was consulting with transplant organizations nationwide to

decide whether to start screening for T. cruzi.

 

" It's a complex issue, " said Dr. Barbara L. Herwaldt, a CDC epidemiologist.

" Which donors would be screened? What test would be used? Right now even blood

donors aren't screened for this infection. "

 

The disease was detected in all three women, but only one recovered after

antibiotic treatment.

 

A 37-year-old who received a pancreas and kidney died in October; a 32-year-old

who received a liver contracted died in July; and a 69-year-old who received the

other kidney is recovering. Their names and hometowns were not released.

 

Federal health officials estimate as many as 100,000 Latin American immigrants

in the United States may carry the parasite. More than 16 million people are

said to be infected in Central and South America.

 

Ten percent to 30 percent of people infected with the parasite develop

full-blown Chagas disease.

 

The second study, on bacterial infections in tissue graft patients, was launched

in November after a 23-year-old Minnesota man died from an infection he

contracted from cadaver tissue used in knee surgery.

 

A 17-year-old Illinois boy became sick after receiving two tissue grafts from

the same donor. That patient is recovering.

 

Fourteen of the 26 patients received tissue processed by the same supplier,

CryoLife of Kennesaw, Ga. The CDC did not name the company nor assign blame,

saying industrywide standards are not tough enough to eliminate the bacteria

responsible for most of the infections.

 

CDC scientists said they are recommending additional procedures the industry

should undertake.

 

" We are in communication with the CDC and will look at their recommendations to

see if they can logically be implemented, " CryoLife spokesman Ron Vogeltanz told

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. " We already do things in excess of what the

industry asks for. "

 

The CDC stressed that tissue graft surgery is still safe, with at least 650,000

of the procedures performed in 1999, the last year for which figures were

available.

 

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-surgical-infections0315mar14\

..story