It is just as safe and effective for people with HIV in need of kidney transplantation to get their organ from donors who are also HIV positive as it is from donors who are not infected with the virus, a new study shows. Survival rates for organ recipients one and three years after the procedure were the same for donors with or without HIV. Also the same were risks of serious side effects, such as infection, fever, and rejection in the donated organ.
In what is the largest comparative trial of the experimental procedures since the first transplant was performed in the United States in 2016, researchers at NYU Langone Health say their study findings further support formally adopting the use of organs from donors with HIV as standard clinical practice for people with HIV in need of kidney transplantation. Spurred by a worldwide shortage of organ donors, the U.S.
Congress passed the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act, or HOPE Act, in 2013, paving the way for first efforts to learn if kidney donors with HIV could safely donate to recipients who also tested positive for the virus. Nearly 90,000 Americans are currently on waiting lists for kidney transplantation, and those in need of a kidney transplant who are HIV positive are more than twice as likely to die while waiting than those who are HIV negative. HIV-to-HIV transplantation has not been formally accepted as the standard of care.
Concerns existed about organ recipients becoming infected with other strains of HIV, potentially leadi.