I had a kidney transplant. doctor says i have bk virus. what is it and what can happen?

Not dangerous: Bk virus is very common (about 60% of population) and usually benign. In kidney transplants, it can be associated with interstitial nephritis (inflammation of kidney tissue), or small ulcers in the ureter (connects kidney to bladder). It rarely causes significant loss of function and no effective treatment is currently shown to be effective. It is usually of little consequence.

Usually nothing: Bk virus is usually asymptomatic, but in renal transplant recepients can cause kidney graft failure in 1-5%.

Usually nothing but-: Part i - what it is: the bk virus is a member of the polyomavirus family. It rarely causes disease since many who are infected are asymptomatic. Traveling in the blood, it infects the kidneys and urinary tract where it persists for the life of the individual. As a latent virus, until the body undergoes some form of immunosuppression. (continued).

A problem for a few-: Part 2- what can happen? Since immunosuppression drugs are used in kidney transplant patients to reduce rejection, 1–10% of this population can experience bk virus nephropathy (bkvn), significantly increasing the risk of graft failure. It's also associated with ureteral stenosis, interstitial nephritis, and in bone marrow transplant recipients, hemorrhagic cystitis (bloody urine).

Depends: BK viruria (virus in the urine) is quite common and but high grade viruria or viremia (virus in the blood) can lead to BK virus nephropathy and if nothing is done about it, it can lead to the loss of the transplanted kidney. Treatment of BK viremia or nephropathy involves carefully reducing immunosuppression but it will increase the risk of rejection.