HIV positive transplant donors approved in the US

22 March 2016. Related: Other news.

Simon Collins, HIV i-Base

After many years of campaigning, the US is set to enable HIV positive people to be able to donate organ for transplant operations.

This was previously illegal, even between when this was a life-saving operation who was also HIV positive, and both partners gave full consent.

In a press release on 8 February 2016, Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore announced that it will be the first – and apparently only – hospital to launch this programme. It is based on a programme that was first established in South Africa.

In the US this required legislation from the 2013 HOPE Act. It is hoped that it might include 500 to 600 HIV positive donors each year for up to 1000 HIV positive recipients.

Approximately 120,000 people in the US are on a transplant waiting list, with only 1 in 4 likely to receive an organ.

Source:

Johns Hopkins press release. Johns Hopkins is first and only center in the United States approved for HIV-positive to HIV-positive organ transplants. (08 February 2016).
http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/media/releases/johns_hopkins_is_first_and_only_center_in_the_united_states_approved_for_hiv_positive_to_hiv_positive_organ_transplants