Lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV)

Record number: 
592
MPHO Type: 
Estimated frequency: 
As of Aug 2012: US 4 donors (14 recipients) with 11 deaths
Time to detection: 
2 days - 3 weeks
Alerting signals, symptoms, evidence of occurrence: 
Fever, lethargia, anorexia,  encephalitis, multi organ failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, leukopenia, thrombocytopenia, liver failure, coagulopathy
Demonstration of imputability or root cause: 
Certain. Donor and recipients positive by virus culture and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction [PCR], with identical sequences of the 396-bp fragment of the large segment of the virus. Presence of IgM and LCMV antigen positve immunocytochemistry.
Imputability grade: 
3 Definite/Certain/Proven
Suggest references: 
High clinical suspicion of donor-derived disease leads to timely recognition and early intervention to treat solid organ transplant-transmitted lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. Gagan Mathur et al. TID 19 APR 2017
Expert comments for publication: 
It is not feasible to proactively screen donors, it should be on the differential diagnosis in solid organ transplant recipients who develop an encephalitis syndrome within 2-3 weeks of transplantation, particularly in donors who died of intracerebral hemorrhage. Archived donor tissue samples are important to help determine imputability given that archived blood specimens have often tested negative in other SOT transmission cases. LCMV was isolated by PCR and viral culture in archived aorta tissue from a SOT and tissue donor; while the implications for tissue transplantation are unclear it is important to promptly notify tissue banks when SOT recipients develop LCMV.