Skunk scratch in Idaho leads to two rabies deaths including organ recipient in Michigan

A rabid skunk scratched an Idaho resident, setting an exceedingly rare, deadly chain reaction that claimed two lives — the original bite victim and his organ transplant recipient, federal officials said.

It’s believed to be the fourth “transplant-transmitted rabies event in the United States since 1978,” a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report said last week.

"Investigation suggested a likely three-step transmission chain in which a rabid silver-haired bat infected a skunk, which infected the donor and led to infection of the kidney recipient," the CDC said.

A Michigan man in December last year "received a left kidney transplant from an Idaho donor at an Ohio hospital" before dying about six weeks later, the CDC said.

The rabies "virus RNA was detected in saliva,