Posted on November 13, 2019
Source: NIH
A Q&A with HIV Transplantation Experts
"Organ donation saves lives. Tragically, many patients are waiting for a life-saving transplant, and there are not enough people registering as organ donors. As a result, 20 people die each day waiting for a transplant—including people living with HIV, who are more likely than HIV-negative people to develop end-stage kidney and liver disease. The HOPE Act of 2013 allows for research into organ transplantation from one person with HIV to another, ultimately benefitting all people waiting for transplants by increasing the number of people eligible to become organ donors.
To learn more about how researchers are leveraging this legislation, NIAID Now spoke to two HIV transplantation experts. Beverly Alston-Smith, M.D., serves as the chief of the Complication and Co-infections Research Branch in NIAID’s Division of AIDS, and Jonah Odim, M.D., Ph.D., is chief of the Clinical Transplantation Section in NIAID’s Division of Allergy, Immunology and Transplantation. Both experts oversee organ transplantation studies among people with HIV."
