Organ
Transplants Successful for HIV-Positive Patients
Kidney and liver transplants in HIV-positive people can work just
as well as in HIV-negative people as long as the "tricky interaction
between anti-rejection and anti-HIV drugs" is managed well, according
to researchers, the Miami Herald reports
(8/30/02).
Approximately
12 transplant centers nationwide now perform transplants on HIV-positive
patients. The University of Miami School of Medicine researchers
who reported their findings yesterday at the XIX
International Congress of the Transplantation Society in Hollywood,
Fla., "cautio[ned]" that such transplants, which previously
were "routinely denied," would not be successful without
highly active antiretroviral therapies that "control"
the virus (Lamas, Miami Herald, 8/30).
According to
the researchers, who studied data from several U.S. kidney and liver
transplant centers and one such center in France, said that one
year following a transplant, HIV-positive patients were "just
as likely to survive" as other transplant recipients (Meckler,
AP/Las Vegas Sun, 8/29).
AIDS advocacy
groups, which have "urged" transplant centers to include
HIV-positive patients on their waiting lists, were "excite[d]"
at the recent findings. Advocates said that while improved HIV/AIDS
treatments extended the lives of HIV-positive patients, exclusion
from organ transplants "allow[s] them to die of organ failure."
According to
study estimates, approximately 15% of HIV-positive people in the
United States are co-infected with hepatitis B or hepatitis C, both
of which can cause liver failure, and HAART can also lead to kidney
failure in some patients. Most U.S. transplant centers still do
not offer organ transplants for HIV-positive patients.
"We regard
HIV like any other co-existing disease, including cancer and heart
disease. They are not accepted because they are not curable,"
Dr. Goran Klintmalm, director of the Baylor Institute of Transplantation
Sciences at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, Texas, said,
adding, "It's a terrible balancing act you have to make when
you have fewer organs than you have recipients" (Jacobson,
Dallas Morning News,
8/30).
09/04/02
Sources
Kaiser
Daily HIV/AIDS Report. August 30, 2002.
Jacobson.
Dallas Morning News. August 30, 2002.
Lamas.
Miami Herald. August 30, 2002.
Meckler.
AP/Las Vegas Sun. August 29, 2002.
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