Federal public health officials say three people who received organs from a rabies-infected donor in 2011 are no longer in danger of coming down with the deadly disease.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta said Tuesday that the organ recipients in Florida, Georgia and Illinois have all completed post-exposure rabies treatment and are out of harm's way.
A Maryland man who received a kidney from the same Florida donor died of rabies in February, about 18 months after his transplant operation.
The unusual case prompted a search for people who might have had close contact with any of the patients. The CDC says 36 people in Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland and North Carolina were urged to get the rabies vaccine, and 28 have done so.
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