Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
First US Case Confirmed Of Coronavirus Transmitted Through Organ Transplant
KHN: Organ Transplant Patient Dies After Receiving Covid-Infected Lungs
Doctors say a woman in Michigan contracted covid-19 and died last fall two months after receiving a tainted double-lung transplant from a donor who turned out to harbor the virus that causes the disease — despite showing no signs of illness and initially testing negative. Officials at the University of Michigan Medical School suggested it may be the first proven case of covid in the U.S. in which the virus was transmitted via an organ transplant. A surgeon who handled the donor lungs was also infected with the virus and fell ill but later recovered. (Aleccia, 2/22)
New York Post: Michigan Woman Dies From COVID-19 After Lung Transplant
The incident may be the first proven case in the U.S. in which the coronavirus was transmitted through an organ transplant, researchers say in a report published by the American Journal of Transplantation. “We would absolutely not have used the lungs if we’d had a positive COVID test,” Dr. Daniel Kaul, director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Service at the University of Michigan Medical School and one of the co-authors of the study, told Kaiser Health News. (Elizalde, 2/21)
HuffPost: Organ Transplant Patient Dies After Receiving COVID-Infected Lungs
The woman who received the transplant was a chronic obstructive lung disease patient at University Hospital in Ann Arbor. She tested negative for COVID-19 several hours before the transplant procedure. Three days after the surgery, the patient developed worsening fever, low blood pressure and respiratory problems. Doctors decided to test samples collected from the patient’s nose and throat as well as her lower respiratory system for COVID-19 after she developed septic shock and heart function problems. The nose and throat sample came back negative but the lower respiratory sample tested positive. (Miller, 2/21)
