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CNN Live Today

CDC Probes West Nile Organ Link

Aired September 02, 2002 - 11:10   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: An outbreak of illness in four Oregon transplant patients is either an incredible coincidence or one more reason to worry about the West Nile virus.
CNN medical correspondent, Elizabeth Cohen, is here to explain how federal health officials are scrambling to track down the source of this outbreak, and what it all has to do with West Nile.

ELIZABETH COHEN, CNN MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: You can only hope it's a coincidence, because that would...

COSTELLO: Oh, yes.

COHEN: ... yes, because that would make things a lot easier. But the CDC says maybe it's not, and we need to investigate it.

Let's lay out a little bit of what's happening here. There have been four patients, who may have contracted West Nile disease from a woman who was in a car accident, died and donated her organs.

Let's take a look at exactly what happened. It all started here in Georgia with a woman who was in a car accident. After she died, her family donated her organs to four different people.

The first person she donated it to developed encephalitis and later died. An autopsy showed that she had a disease that was either West Nile or a similar disease.

Another person, who she donated to, developed encephalitis, and lab work showed that that person did, indeed, have West Nile virus.

A third person, who received her organs, also developed encephalitis. Lab work is still being done to see what disease that person had.

And the fourth person developed a fever, and again, lab work is still being done.

Now, the CDC says, hey, maybe all four of those people happened to be bit by mosquitoes, at the same time developed an illness. But maybe it came from this woman.

Now, if it came from this woman, those are the only four people who got her body parts. So as horrible as it is, obviously, for those four people, it would end there, except -- and now, we need to lay out another scenario, which would be more scary. If this woman, who had the accident, if she got the blood from -- if she got the disease from a mosquito, then it's just chance. But she received blood before she died from 37 different donors. She was transfused, and the blood came from 37 different donors. If it just went to her, again, not such a big issue.

But that blood, the CDC says, could have gone out to other people, before they figured out this whole thing and put a stop to it. If that happened, then it is possible that we could be seeing more cases, again, all from this blood, from these 37 donors.

So that's the question that people are trying to answer now.

Now, of course, you might have the question, and I certainly did: Why don't they screen blood for West Nile virus before they take it? The answer is, there is no good blood test. There is no good screening tool.

COSTELLO: So when you go to donate blood, they're not going to test you for West Nile, because they wouldn't know -- they can't.

COHEN: They can't basically. Right, they can't.

But there are other things they can do, though. I mean, there is one thing they can do, which is that they can ask you, when you go to give blood, do have you a fever, have you had a fever recently? If you have, they don't want your blood, because perhaps you have West Nile or perhaps you have something else.

But, one problem with that, which is that 80 percent of the people who get West Nile virus disease -- who get West Nile virus have no symptoms at all. The virus is sitting in their blood. They have no symptoms. They are perfectly healthy.

So they wouldn't know to say yes, because they haven't been sick; 19 percent only have mild symptoms, might not think to say no, because they were just a little bit sick. Less than 1 percent has serious illness.

So asking people if they have had a fever recently is -- I mean, they do it. It's a good thing to do, but it's not very foolproof, because so few people get sick from this disease.

COSTELLO: That's just so disturbing. I mean, the only other question they could ask you is: Have you been bitten by a mosquito? But like...

COHEN: Right, which is in Georgia, it's 100 percent of everybody.

COSTELLO: Exactly.

COHEN: Yes, yes, that would be...

COSTELLO: So how do you protect yourself? I guess there is no way, because they are not really sure. You talked about 37 donors. Is the CDC going back through all of those donors to see if any of them might have West Nile?

COHEN: Absolutely. As we speak, that is what they are doing. They are going back to those 37 donors.

When people give blood, they keep a sample, so they can go back and they can test it. If any of those folks have West Nile, they can tell those people, so they don't give blood again. Again, they have kept that blood out of the supply from here on out. They're not allowed to give blood again.

I asked someone from the CDC yesterday, the head of Infectious Diseases, I said, gosh, if you needed a blood transfusion or needed an organ, wouldn't this worry you? And he said, absolutely not. The chances of getting West Nile virus from a blood transfusion or from an organ are minimal. And if I was sick enough to need a transfusion or need an organ, I wouldn't be worried about West Nile virus. I'd be worried about whatever disease I had.

COSTELLO: Right, because that's much more dangerous.

COHEN: Right, exactly, much more of an immediate threat -- absolutely.

COSTELLO: All right, thank you Elizabeth Cohen...

COHEN: OK, thank you.

COSTELLO: ... for enlightening us on a kind of scary topic.

COHEN: A little bit scary, a little bit scary.

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