A Kidney Transplant Came With an Unwelcome Hitchhiker: A Deadly Tick Germ

A person’s precious organ donation came with an unexpected visitor. In a new paper out this month, scientists have documented an unconventional way of catching a rare germ normally spread by ticks: from a person’s infected donated kidney. Doctors and health officials detailed the unusual mishap in a report published Monday in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Both the living donor and recipient became sick soon after their operations, leading doctors to discover that the former had transmitted an infection caused by Ehrlichia bacteria. Fortunately, the tainted transfer was detected in time and both patients were treated successfully. Ticks are prolific carriers of many germs, including the germs behind Lyme disease, relapsing fever, and ehrlichiosis. Several species of bacteria cause ehrlichiosis, though most cases are tied to Ehrlichia chaffeensis. The disease is rarely documented, though cases have been increasing over time. In 2022, there were 1,570 reported cases of ehrli ... Read full article.