In New York City, doctors have performed the first-ever heart transplant from an HIV-positive donor.
Doctors at Montefiore Health in the Bronx, New York City, disclosed this week that a lady in her sixties with advanced heart failure underwent a heart and kidney transplant from the same HIV-positive donor in the spring. The woman herself was HIV-positive.
Before 2013, organ transplants from HIV-positive donors were prohibited in the United States. Now, they are permitted for research purposes to determine how the body will respond to the new organs.
With over 100,000 Americans on the waiting list for a new organ and more than a dozen on that list dying every day, doctors are confident that even a minor expansion of the donor pool could save more lives. Matching HIV-positive patients with HIV-positive donors could help improve the utilization of other resources.
This is something that has never been accomplished before. It is part of a larger effort to utilize organs that have not been used in the past, according to Dr. David Klassen, the chief medical officer of the United Network for Organ Sharing.
The global demand for new organs will always exceed the existing supply. As of Friday afternoon, 106,023 Americans were waiting for an organ transplant, according to official figures.
Approximately 40,000 transplants are performed annually in contrast. This causes many people to die while waiting for a new transplant, and the list of potential recipients continues to increase.
Heart transplants can be particularly difficult to locate. Recipients must hope for a heart donor whose cause of death did not result in heart damage.
This prompted doctors at Montefiore, one of 25 hospitals in the United States authorized to do the transplant, to offer the HIV-positive transplant to a woman who had been waiting for a long time.
“She had been waiting for a considerable amount of time, so we thought, why not discuss this with the patient? Dr. Omar Saeed, a cardiologist at Montefiore, told the Bronx Times that the patient recognized the risks and benefits of the procedure and signed consent forms.
Her four-hour operation was successful, and she is currently recuperating at home after five weeks in the hospital.
However, it required time and political resolve to reach this stage. During the AIDS crisis of the 1980s, organ donations from HIV-positive Americans were prohibited.
On the one hand, the restriction prevented HIV-negative individuals from contracting the virus out of desperation for an organ.
It also avoided HIV-positive receivers, for whom the danger of getting an organ from a positive donor is not increased.
With recent medical and technical developments, HIV is no longer a death sentence, and more HIV-positive individuals will require these types of transplants.
An HIV patient can take antiretroviral medicines indefinitely, preventing the virus from causing AIDS and protecting them from transmitting the illness to others.
HIV treatment has evolved so drastically over the years that what was once a lethal disease is now more of a chronic condition.
In 2013, the HOPE (HIV Organ Policy Equity) Act was passed, lifting the ban on HIV-positive donors and expanding the treatment choices for infected individuals.
HIV-positive individuals are living considerably longer and will have more medical demands in the future, making it even more critical to expand treatment options.
He added, “Any endeavor to enlarge the pool of possible donors is a positive thing.”
