Patient zero: the December transplant - a podcast by BBC World Service

Three transplant patients died within a week of each other in Melbourne in December 2006 and alarm bells started ringing. One of the patients was Karen. When she got a phone call from the hospital offering her a kidney transplant, it seemed like a lucky break. But things didn't go according to plan. Olivia Willis tells the story of how doctors discovered that one donor had transmitted a mystery virus to these patients. These tragic cases changed the way that transplantation was done in Australia.

Produced by James Bullen, Cheyne Anderson and Joel Werner of ABC

Picture: TEM of Arenavirus, Credit: Callista Images/Getty Images

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