Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Transmission Of Yellow Fever Vaccine Virus Through Blood Transfusion And Organ Transplantation In The Usa In 2021: Report Of An Investigation, Carolyn V. Gould, Rebecca J. Free, Julu Bhatnagar, Raymond A. Soto, Tricia L. Royer, Warren R. Maley, Sean Moss, Matthew A. Berk, Rebecca Craig-Shapiro, Rosy Priya L. Kodiyanplakkal, Lars F. Westblade, Thangamani Muthukumar, Yoram A. Puius, Amresh Raina, Azam Hadi, Kymberly A. Gyure, Danielle Trief, Marcus Pereira, Matthew J. Kuehnert, Vennus Ballen, Debra A. Kessler, Kimberly Dailey, Charles Omura, Thuy Doan, Steve Miller, Michael R. Wilson, Jennifer A. Lehman, Jana M. Ritter, Elizabeth Lee, Luciana Silva-Flannery, Sarah Reagan-Steiner, Jason O. Velez, Janeen J. Laven, Kelly A. Fitzpatrick, Amanda Panella, Emily H. Davis, Holly R. Hughes, Aaron C. Brault, Kirsten St George, Amy B. Dean, Joel Ackelsberg, Sridhar V. Basavaraju, Charles Y. Chiu, J. Erin Staples

Department of Medicine Faculty Papers

BACKGROUND: In 2021, four patients who had received solid organ transplants in the USA developed encephalitis beginning 2-6 weeks after transplantation from a common organ donor. We describe an investigation into the cause of encephalitis in these patients.

METHODS: From Nov 7, 2021, to Feb 24, 2022, we conducted a public health investigation involving 15 agencies and medical centres in the USA. We tested various specimens (blood, cerebrospinal fluid, intraocular fluid, serum, and tissues) from the organ donor and recipients by serology, RT-PCR, immunohistochemistry, metagenomic next-generation sequencing, and host gene expression, and conducted a traceback of blood transfusions received by …