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Patient zero: The December transplant

Patient Zero tells the stories of disease outbreaks: where they begin and why they happen.

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)

27 minutes

Last on

Mon 29 Mar 2021 00:32GMT

Broadcasts

  • Mon 22 Mar 2021 20:32GMT
  • Mon 22 Mar 2021 21:32GMT
  • Tue 23 Mar 2021 04:32GMT
  • Tue 23 Mar 2021 11:32GMT
  • Tue 23 Mar 2021 18:32GMT
  • Mon 29 Mar 2021 00:32GMT

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