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Although organ donors are routinely screened for potential pathogens, such screening exists for only a limited number of organisms. A recent report chronicles the transmission of a free-living ameba, Balamuthia mandrillaris, to at least two of four patients who received organs from a 4-year-old boy. The boy died relatively suddenly from what was believed to be acute disseminated encephalomyelitis, an autoimmune neurological disease that can follow viral or bacterial infections. However, an examination of his brain tissue conducted 4 weeks postmortem revealed infection with B. mandrillaris — a cause of granulomatous amebic encephalitis.
In December 2009, 20 days after transplantation, the two patients who received kidneys from this donor deve…