Pennsylvania Division of Health’s New Locating Earns CDC Recognition for Safeguarding Transplant Recipients against Extreme Lung Infections

The Centers for Illness Handle and Prevention (CDC) has announced that the Pennsylvania Division of Overall health has turn out to be the 1st in the United States to recognize the transmission of Legionella from an organ straight to a transplant patient. This discovery has the prospective to protect against the transfer of Legionella in future transplant recipients. The Department’s group of epidemiologists, who investigate the causes and patterns of illnesses, found a suspected Legionella transmission from a single donor lung to two recipients. Generally, transplant sufferers with weakened immune systems are at an elevated threat of contracting Legionella from the atmosphere following getting a transplant. On the other hand, 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 boost patient outcomes and cut down 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 instances of Legionnaires illness in two transplant sufferers who each received a single lung from the exact same donor. To ascertain if the infections had been transmitted by means of the transplanted organs and to recognize other potentially at-threat sufferers, investigators studied CT scans, tested specimens for Legionella, and reviewed water top quality parameters and Legionella testing records from the transplant hospital. Prompt identification of Legionella infection is critical for helpful remedy and to protect against 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 make contact with Mark O’Neill at ra-dhpressoffice@pa.gov.