The surgery, the first of its kind in the world between living patients, took place a a few months ago, the hospital said, and the recipient has returned to work and normal functioning.
The Tel Aviv transplant required a long and careful preparation by the interdisciplinary transplant team that included doctors from the hospital’s AIDS center and its transplant center, as well as psychologists and social workers.
The procedure is complicated by the need to change the drugs taken by the HIV carriers to raise the prospects for success and prevent conflicts between drugs to minimize rejection of the organ and medications for HIV.
“Organs from HIV carriers have never been used for transplant before anywhere in the world, except in South Africa, where it has been done successfully using organs from braindead patients for many years,” said Dr. Roni Baruch, head of Sourasky’s transplant clinic. “On the basis of the South African experience and the growing awareness that HIV is no longer the fatal disease it used to be, there is recognition in the Western world of the possibility that HIV carriers can undergo lifesaving organ transplants. Of course, such organs will be given only to HIV carriers themselves.”
The couple involved were a man who had been on dialysis for two years and his wife – both of them HIV carriers. Following the surgery, whose date was not given, both are under close observation to ensure that their kidney function and immune systems are stable.
Editors Note – Whilst we do not condone the multiple use of “HIV carrier” in this article, we believe the news to be important enough to bring to you.
