Fourth patient dies of rabies

DALLAS -- A fourth patient died of rabies after receiving a transplant from an infected donor, health officials confirmed Thursday.

While the first three victims received organs from an Arkansas man who had the disease, the fourth victim received one of the man's arteries, officials at Baylor University Medical Center said.

The donor had shown no symptoms of rabies before his death from a brain hemorrhage, officials said.

William Sutker, chief of the department of infectious diseases at Baylor, said doctors did not initially diagnose rabies in any of the cases, instead suspecting encephalitis or meningitis.

"Rabies was not something that anybody could have, or would have, thought of," Sutker said.

The three deaths are the first documented cases of rabies being spread through organ transplants, the government said.

Officials were still conducting tests but said the chance of more infections was unlikely.

"All the tissue from this donor has been either used or destroyed," Sutker said.