A six-year-old Queensland boy set to undergo a lifesaving bone marrow transplant is now potentially at risk of developing West Nile River virus — after tests revealed his stem cell donor from the United States may carry the disease.
It comes just weeks after a separate mishap, in which the donated stem cells were left on an airport tarmac in the US.
Mateoh Eggleton was diagnosed with granulomatous disease in 2019, which was cured after his first bone marrow transplant in 2020.
But it left him with hemolytic anaemia — a disorder where red blood cells are destroyed faster than they can be produced — requiring another bone marrow transplant.
Despite the series of complications with the donated US stem cells, Mateoh will still be transplanted with them on Monday.
His mother Shalyn Eggleton said she was unaware the stems cells for Mateoh's new bone marrow transplant came from an ineligible donor until after they arrived in Australia.
"When the cells arrived in Brisbane on Friday February 24, the labs informed us that the donor was actually an ineligible donor, but the cells were viable," she said.
"We got a phone call from our doctors … letting us know that in America, there's a virus, the West Nile virus and this potential donor may carry it or may have had it previously."
According to the US Centre for Disease Control, eight out of 10 people infected with West Nile River virus do not develop any symptoms. Some go on to develop mild illness including a fever, aches, vomiting and diarrhoea, while one in 150 people experience severe illness affecting the central nervous system.
Mateoh has had 11 days of treatment to suppress his immune system.
"The labs say that Mateoh could possibly catch this virus — but then at the end of the day, we either do this transplant, give Mateoh a chance of life with the potential of a virus, or we don't do the transplant, and he will pass away," Ms Eggleton said.
"There are currently no changes to his plan … it's pretty much just protecting his body as he's on a lot of medications a day, just protecting him from viruses, infection, and bacteria.
"It's just watching for symptoms and … monitoring him."
Ms Eggleton said the most significant concern now was whether the transplant would work.
"We don't know if the transplant will work, to be honest," she said.
"We are just hoping and praying that the cells do graft into Mateoh."
Investigation into airport mishap
Prior to discovering the potential issue with West Nile River virus, the donated stem cells were left on a tarmac at a US airport.
Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry chief executive Lisa Smith said there was an ongoing investigation into the cell's delayed transportation.
"We've identified that at no point were the cells lost or missing, and the container had a GPS tracker, and a full chain of custody was maintained for the cells to be safe and secure for the whole period," Ms Smith said.
"Additionally, no temperature excursions arose outside the acceptable range during this period.
"We will be discussing the investigation report with our scientific and expert advisory committee next week."
Call for more Australian bone marrow donors
Ms Smith said Australia needed more bone marrow donors due to current restrictions on donor recruitment.
"While Australia has such high dependency on donors from so far away for our patients, we unfortunately will continue to be faced with transport risks such as what we have seen with Mateoh," she said.
"We have been calling on governments for several years to lift the restrictions on bone marrow donor recruitment, and at the last Australian Health Ministers' meeting, we were pleased to note that the health ministers' acknowledged the critical need to add more donors to our registry.
"Federal Health Minister Mark Butler has given his support in parliament, and we are waiting on the details to flow through to us."
Ms Eggleton said she believed there should be "a lot more" bone marrow donors in Australia and that the age limit should be lifted from the current age limit of 35.
"It should be lifted to around the forties and fifties because there's still a lot of healthy people these days in that age bracket," she said.
"I believe that things do need to change regarding who can donate and who can't.
"There needs to be more advertising and just more awareness of people that are requiring bone marrow transplants in Australia and the need for donors in Australia."
A GoFundMe has been established to assist Mateoh's family.
