Organ recipient gets rare amoeba

JACKSON, Miss. — An extremely rare infection has been passed from an organ donor to at least one recipient in what is thought to be the first human-to-human transfer of the amoeba, medical officials said Friday.

Four people in three states received organs from a patient who died at the University of Mississippi Medical Center in November after suffering from neurological problems, said Dave Daigle, a spokesman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Organs are routinely tested for HIV, hepatitis and other more common infections, but occasionally rare ones slip through.

“We test for the known harmful diseases, but there’s not a test for every single pathogen out there,” said Dr. Kenneth Kokko, medical director of kidney transplants at the medical center.

Two of the recipients are critically ill, but the others haven’t shown symptoms, Daigle said. The CDC confirmed the presence of the organism, known as Balamuthia mandrillaris, in one of the recipients.