HIV-Positive Organs Transplanted into HIV-Positive Recipients

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HIV-Positive Organs Transplanted into HIV-Positive Recipients

April 8th, 2016

Awake Goy

World’s first liver transplant from HIV+ donor to HIV+ recipient performed at Johns Hopkins Hospital

Doctors at Johns Hopkins University Hospital have successfully performed surgery that transplanted organs from one deceased HIV-positive (+) donor into two HIV + recipients.

In 1988 a law was passed prohibiting HIV+ people from donating organs. In 2013 President Obama reversed that law making the recent surgery possible. Modern anti-AIDS medication have turned HIV from the quick killer it used to be into a chronic disease, enabling HIV+ people to live long enough to suffer organ failure. The recent surgery is part of research to determine if HIV-to-HIV transplants are helpful.

Two organs, a kidney and a liver, were accepted from a donor; two patients received the organs. The patient who received the kidney has been living with HIV for 30 years and been on dialysis. The patient who received the liver suffered from hepatitis C and has been living with HIV for over 25 years. Both patients had been on the organ donation waiting list for years and both are doing well following the transplant surgery.

According to the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS), there are over 100,000 people on the U.S. organ donation list waiting for a kidney and almost 15,000 waiting for a liver transplant. UNOS also reports that since 2005 at least 1,376 HIV people have had transplants using HIV negative organs. A John Hopkins transplant specialist estimated that each year 300 to 500 would-be donors who are HIV+ die; from them, potentially, enough kidneys and livers could be harvested for 1,000 additional transplants.

Reportedly, HIV+ kidneys have been successfully transplanted in South Africa, but the HIV+ liver transplant at Johns Hopkins is the first in the world.