Posted on November 14, 2013
Source: Scientific American
The U.S. is poised to overturn its ban on accepting organs from HIV-positive donors, a move that would lead to organ transplants between infected patients.
Legislation approved by the House of Representatives on November 12 seeks to end the 25-year prohibition on HIV-infected organs. It also directs the government to develop guidelines for the subsequent study of "positive-to-positive" transplants.
Researchers say that such procedures could help ease the overwhelming demand for donor organs in the United States. More than 120,000 people are waiting for new hearts, lungs, kidneys and other organs—a list that includes people with HIV, who are living longer thanks to antiretroviral drugs and other medical advances. Roughly a quarter of HIV patients in the US also have hepatitis C, which in its advanced form can be treated only by liver transplant.
“Any potential source of new donors should be looked at,” says transplant surgeon Peter Stock of the University of California, San Francisco. One recent study suggests that allowing donations from otherwise healthy people with HIV could make an additional 500‒600 organs available for transplant each year.
