Doctors transplant HIV+ organ

[theblackalchemist]

Doctors transplant HIV+ organ

 

APE TOWN: Doctors

transplanted HIV-infected kidneys from a single donor into two men in Cape Town

recently.

 

The operations, which took place in late September at the Groote Schuur hospital, where Christiaan Barnard performed the world’s first heart transplant, were not made public until it was clear they had been successful, South Africa’s Mail & Guardian weekly newspaper reported on Friday.

 

The South African authorities had previously blocked HIV-positive people from receiving transplants and discarded nearly a third of organs because the potential donors were carrying the virus that causes AIDS. But the ban was lifted last year, opening the way for more operations, and possibly giving HIV-positive patients a greater chance of receiving new kidneys than those not infected with the AIDS virus, because there are more potential donors, the report said.

 

The surgeon who performed the operations, Dr Elmi Muller, said the condition of both patients was “excellent”, the transplanted kidneys were functioning well and there were no signs of rejection. Muller said that if the kidney transplants were successful in the long term it would open the way to the use of other organs such as livers

, which are particularly vulnerable to damage by anti-AIDS drugs, and hearts.

 

 

Doctors transplant HIV+ organ-Health/Sci-The Times of India