ATLANTA, Dec. 10 -- In what health officials are calling an "exceptionally rare event," a Michigan man has died of rabies after receiving a kidney from a donor who had unknowingly contracted the disease when he was scratched by a rabid skunk while defending a kitten.

The tragic case, detailed in a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), outlines a "likely three-step transmission chain" from a bat to a skunk, to an organ donor, and finally to the transplant recipient, The Guardian reported.

The medical mystery began when the Michigan patient, who had received a kidney transplant in December 2024, was hospitalised five weeks later with tremors, confusion, and weakness.

He died shortly after, and postmorte...