The John Hopkins University Clinic will perform the first kidney and liver transplant in the United States between an HIV-positive donor and recipient. Proponents of this solution argue that it will save lives of HIV patients, while shortening the overall queue of people waiting for transplants.
Dr. Dorry Segev, professor of surgery at John Hopkins University’s medical department estimates that each year, organs from 500-600 potential HIV donors go to waste, although they could save more than XNUMX lives. “This would result in the largest increase in the number of transplants carried out in a decade,” he believes.
From 1988 to November 2013, when President Barack Obama signed the HIV Organ Policy Equity, medical institutions were not allowed to undertake such transplants. Having received the green light from United Network for Organ Sharing – the institution that manages the transplant system in the US – John Hopkins Clinical Hospital is ready to perform the procedure as soon as the correct donor and recipient are found.
Seropositive patients can receive organs from donors without the virus, so this change in the law will make people with HIV disappear faster from the organ waiting list, which currently has about 122 people across the United States. sick.
HIV-uninfected patients will not receive organs from their carriers.
At one time, transplants for HIV positive recipients were considered to be pointless. The 2013 law lifted the 1988 transplant ban, at a time when AIDS was dreaded.
Dr. David Klassen, chief physician of the United Network for Organ Sharing, explains that there has been a tremendous change in the medical situation of those infected since then.
“Back in the day, no one even considered transplanting people with HIV because everyone knew their life expectancy was very short,” he says. The concept that HIV positive patients could be recipients emerged with improved prognosis.
Since a similar transplant has never been carried out in the United States, there are no procedures in place in medical facilities. Segev expects that by the time they are implemented, the number of treatments will be minimal, only after that the indicators will start to slowly increase.
At least initially, the program will use the organs of deceased donors. As the doctor explains, more research is needed to determine whether a person infected with HIV can safely become a survivor of a former kidney.
The possibility of becoming a donor after death carries not only medical potential, it has also been received very favorably by the HIV positive community. – People want to leave something behind, they want to help. Hearing that you cannot do something for others because of HIV can be extremely disheartening. Now another social stigma associated with AIDS is disappearing, says Segev.
Michael Kaplan, president of AIDS United, has been living with HIV since 1992 and with type 1 diabetes since 1980. In an interview, he said he was glad that HIV positive people would now have more options available – and that he himself suddenly realized that he needed to update his own donor declaration. – If my organs were to help someone with HIV, I can only be happy about it!