The Centers for Illness Handle and Prevention (CDC) has announced that the Pennsylvania Division of Overall health has turn out to be the initial in the United States to determine the transmission of Legionella from an organ straight to a transplant patient. This discovery has the prospective to avert the transfer of Legionella in future transplant recipients. The Department’s group of epidemiologists, who investigate the causes and patterns of ailments, found a suspected Legionella transmission from a single donor lung to two recipients. Usually, transplant individuals with weakened immune systems are at an enhanced danger of contracting Legionella from the atmosphere following getting a transplant. Having said that, the Department’s investigation reveals that the two transplant recipients in this case had been infected by the organ itself, rather than the atmosphere. Dr. Debra Bogen, Pennsylvania Acting Secretary of Overall health, expressed pride in the department’s epidemiologists for this groundbreaking discovery and their prospective to enhance patient outcomes and decrease really serious lung infections amongst transplant recipients.

Legionella bacteria is accountable for causing Legionnaires illness, which is a serious kind of pneumonia. In 2022, the CDC and the Pennsylvania Division of Overall health investigated circumstances of Legionnaires illness in two transplant individuals who each received a single lung from the identical donor. To establish if the infections had been transmitted via the transplanted organs and to determine other potentially at-danger individuals, investigators studied CT scans, tested specimens for Legionella, and reviewed water high quality parameters and Legionella testing records from the transplant hospital. Prompt identification of Legionella infection is vital for productive remedy and to avert additional complications.

The Pennsylvania Division of Health’s investigation on this transmission of Legionella from organ to transplant recipient has been published in the CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). For media inquiries, please get in touch with Mark O’Neill at ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov.