/ / / The World’s First HIV-to-HIV Liver Transplant Performed At Johns Hopkins

The World’s First HIV-to-HIV Liver Transplant Performed At Johns Hopkins

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The World's First HIV-to-HIV Liver Transplant Performed At Johns Hopkins

The world’s first HIV-to-HIV liver transplant was announced Wednesday by doctors at Johns Hopkins University.

As previously reported by The Inquisitr, the long-planned procedure that took the liver from a deceased HIV patient and transplanted it into another HIV-positive patient comes three years after the United States overturned a ban on such operations.

According to Healthcare Dive, the patient who received the liver was infected with the virus that causes AIDS more than 20 years ago, said doctors at Johns Hopkins University.

The same HIV-positive donor also gave her kidney to another patient for transplant.

In 2013, President Barack Obama signed into law the HOPE (HIV Organ Policy Equity) Act, which overturned a previous law that made it illegal to use an organ from a donor infected with HIV for transplant.

Dorry Segev, professor of surgery at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said at a press conference Wednesday that the procedure had been completed earlier in the month.

“A couple of weeks ago we performed the first HIV-to-HIV liver transplant in the world, and the first HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant in the United States. This is a very exciting day for us but it is really only the beginning.”

While this is the first HIV-to-HIV liver transplant in the world, there have been similar HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant operations successfully performed in South Africa.

According to Johns Hopkins, the HIV-to-HIV kidney transplant patient, whose name has not been released, has already been discharged from the hospital.

The family of the donor, whose name has also not been released, issued a statement that described her a “very boisterous soul” who fought for justice.

“She was a daughter, a mother, an auntie, best friend and sister. She was able to leave this world helping those underdogs she fought so hard for.”

Although HIV-positive people are able to receive organs from HIV-negative donors, many die before they can get a transplant because there are so few organ donors.

Currently, there are roughly 122,000 people on the transplant waiting list in the United States and thousands die before they can receive an organ.

Segev said his research shows that between 500 and 600 HIV-infected, who have viable organs healthy enough for donation, die each year.

Now that those individual’s organs can be used for HIV-to-HIV transplants, it is estimated that some 1,000 lives may be saved annually, although the there are some unique risks involved.

Christine Durand, assistant professor of medicine and oncology at Johns Hopkins Medicine, said risks involved with HIV-to-HIV transplants include the possibility of being exposed to a different strain of HIV than what the donor carries.

Segev said there are dozens of hospitals in the United States with sufficient experience with negative-to-positive transplants to learn the intricacies of doing positive-to-positive surgeries.

The announcement of the HIV-to-HIV transplants was heralded by advocacy groups, including the HIV Medicine Association.

“For patients living with HIV, deceased donors with the same infection represent a unique source of organs holding the potential to save the lives of hundreds of HIV-infected patients struggling with liver and kidney failure each year. We look forward to seeing this medical breakthrough offer hope to more people living with HIV infection who are in need of organ transplants.”

(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)

The World’s First HIV-to-HIV Liver Transplant Performed At Johns Hopkins is an article from: The Inquisitr News

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