New US Rule Expands Organ Donor Pool, Includes HIV-Positive Donors

Individuals with HIV in need of kidney or liver transplants can now receive organs from HIV-positive donors, as per a new regulation announced on Tuesday by US health authorities.

The US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra stated, “This rule removes unnecessary barriers to kidney and liver transplants, expanding the organ donor pool and improving outcomes for transplant recipients with HIV.”

Research supports the safety of this practice, including a recent study in the New England Journal of Medicine. The study tracked 198 recipients over up to four years, comparing those who received kidneys from HIV-positive donors with those who received kidneys from HIV-negative donors. Both groups exhibited similar high survival rates and low organ rejection rates.

In 2010, South African surgeons first demonstrated the safety of using HIV-positive donor organs for HIV-positive recipients. However, this practice was not permitted in the United States until 2013, when the government lifted the ban and allowed research studies.

Initially, these studies involved deceased donors. Then, in 2019, a team at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the world’s first kidney transplant from a living HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient. To date, 500 kidney and liver transplants from HIV-positive donors have been conducted in the US.

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