People with HIV can safely receive kidneys from donors who died with the virus, according to a large US study, as the Government seeks to expand the practice to reduce waiting lists.
The new study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, analyzed 198 kidney transplants performed in the United States, the Associated Press (AP) reported.
The researchers found similar results whether the donated organ came from a person with or without the AIDS virus.
Last month, the Department of Health proposed a rule change that would allow these types of kidney and liver transplants outside of research studies.
The final rule would apply to both living and deceased donors. If approved, it could go into effect next year.
The study participants were HIV positive.had kidney failure and agreed to receive an organ from an HIV-positive deceased donor or an HIV-negative deceased donor, depending on which kidney became available first.
Researchers followed organ recipients for up to four years. They compared the half who received kidneys from HIV-positive donors with those whose kidneys came from HIV-free donors.
Both groups had similar high rates of overall survival and low rates of organ rejection..
Virus levels increased in 13 patients in the HIV donor group and four in the other group, mainly because the patients were not taking anti-HIV drugs consistently, and in all cases they returned to very low or undetectable levels.
“This demonstrates the safety and fantastic results we are seeing with these transplants,” said study co-author Dorry Segev of NYU Langone Health.
In 2010, surgeons in South Africa provided the first evidence that the use of organs from HIV-positive donors was safe in people with HIV.
But the practice was not allowed in the United States until 2013, when the government lifted the ban and allowed research studies at Segev’s request.
Initially the studies were with deceased donors. Then, in 2019, Segev and others at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the world’s first kidney transplant, from a living HIV-positive donor to an HIV-positive recipient.
In total, 500 kidney and liver transplants were performed from HIV-positive donors in the United States.
People with HIV have been actively discouraged from registering as organ donors because of stigma and outdated state laws and policies that criminalize organ donation to people with HIV, said Carrie Foote, a professor of sociology at Indiana University in Indianapolis. .
“Not only can we help those living with this disease, but we also free up more organs across the full spectrum of organs so that those who do not have HIV can get an organ more quickly,” said Foote, who is HIV positive and a registered organ donor.
“It’s a win-win situation,” he added.
More than 90,000 people are on the waiting list for kidney transplants, according to the US Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network. In 2022, more than 4,000 people died waiting for kidneys.
Source: Observadora
