Balamuthia mandrillaris;  Balamuthia granulomatous amebic encephalitis

Record number: 
379
Adverse Occurrence type: 
MPHO Type: 
Time to detection: 
23 days
Alerting signals, symptoms, evidence of occurrence: 
A 24 year old kidney-pancreas recipient developed headache, nausea and vomiting 7 days after surgery. A brain biopsy 30 days postop showed  Balamuthia granulomatous amebic encephalitis. Donor was a 27 year old landscaper who died of a presumed stroke. He had a large skin lesion on the back for 6 months (In Balmuthia amebic infection patients can have a skin lesion for 6-12 months before developing amebic encephalitis. Organ recipients would have the organ as the entry vehicle, and wouldn't have a history of a skin lesion entry site:
Demonstration of imputability or root cause: 
Likely, probable transmission from donor. Both liver and kidney-pancrese recipients died of B mandrillaris infection but infection was not documented in the organ donor. B. mandrillaris DNA was detected in brain tissue by PCR for both liver and kidney-pancreas recipients. B. mandrillaris antigens were found in brain tissue of the K-P recipient and brain and liver tissue of liver recipient.The donor history was suggestive of infection because he had a skin lesion of 6 months duration and died of a catastrophic brain condition.
Imputability grade: 
2 Probable
Suggest references: 
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