US begins organ transplants from living donors who have HIV

Associated Press ^ | March 28, 2019 | Lauran Neergard

[Olog-hai]

Surgeons in Baltimore have performed what’s thought to be the world’s first kidney transplant from a living donor with HIV, a milestone for patients with the AIDS virus who need a new organ — and one that could free up space on the transplant waiting list for everyone.

Nina Martinez of Atlanta traveled to Johns Hopkins University to donate a kidney to an HIV-positive stranger, saying she “wanted to make a difference in somebody else’s life” and counter the stigma that too often still surrounds HIV infection. […]

“Here’s a disease that in the past was a death sentence and now has been so well controlled that it offers people with that disease an opportunity to save somebody else,” said Dr. Dorry Segev, a Hopkins surgeon who pushed for the HIV Organ Policy Equity, or HOPE, Act that lifted a 25-year U.S. ban on transplants between people with HIV.

There’s no count of how many HIV-positive patients are among the 113,000 people on the nation’s waiting list for an organ transplant. HIV-positive patients can receive transplants from HIV-negative donors just like anyone else. …

[semaj]

GTFOOH!

[gaijin]

How might you get upset about an alcoholic butting into a liver transplant donation line, but look causally upon THIS..?

[SoConPubbie]

That “stigma”, is, generally, there for a good reason. Most recipients get this horrible disease for choosing to engage in risky and immoral behavior.

[Rurudyne]

Because all strains of HIV are exactly the same and what didn’t technically kill one guy won’t kill the next.

[GreyFriar]

I had type 1 hepatitis at age 10 and have never been permitted to either donate blood or organs. The political correctness of the ‘oppressed’ homosexuals has now approved them donating blood and organs, although there is no way to eradicate the disease from their bodies.

[Sarah Barracuda]

Hey what can POSSIBLY go wrong..get a new organ with HIV its all the craze

[Rurudyne]

I’m old enough to remember when the perverts first wrapped this disease in the civil rights mantel and prevented any reasonable attempt to respond to it. Then they spent years trying to act like it was a common disease among the general population in America.

[BitWielder1]

When you have AIDS you take all kinds of meds to keep your immune system working.
And you're still vulnerable for the rest of your life.
When you receive a transplant you get immune suppressant drugs.
How is that supposed to work?

[House Atreides]

she “wanted to make a difference in somebody else’s life”
***************************************
Well, she’ll certainly give the HIV recipient of her donated kidney yet another variant of the HIV virus with which to deal. It will be interesting to see how this works out.

[newzjunkey]

It’s interesting they don’t find immunosuppressants needed for a transplant aren’t a risk for hiv positive patients. I would hope they have genotyped the strain of each. The most common hiv strains maybe well controlled in many patients but not all strains.

I think I would pass on an organ from a positive donor but I am not given to desire an organ donation for myself anyway. That said if I could help my positive friend, I would offer him what I could spare.

[Spunky]

My grandson had been donating plasma but forgot to tell them at one of the donations he had a tooth extracted before this donation. So the next time when he went in then he told them. They accused him of lying by not having told them, but he had only forgotten. He was then banned for life from ever giving plasma again.

[dpetty121263]

Really dumb idea!

[grania]

I'm a Luddite and an Outlier who tries not to be defined by anyone else's opinions. In my mind, transplanting human body parts or tissue from abortions or even live births goes against the Grania religion, which only has one member. In my heart and mind, any human body parts (including blood) taken from another is a form of cannibalism. Other species body parts, just as bad.

I also do not like at all the medical profession being allowed to play God. I'm referring to declaring a person dead while their body parts are still alive.

I don't expect anyone to agree with me. A lifetime of a combination of learning, observation, and experience makes it very unlikely that anybody could change my mind.

[Gamecock]

And recipients of transplants require immunosuppressive drugs the rest of their lives.

What could possibly go wrong!

[a fool in paradise]

And we are to trust the utensils and the cleaning. Even though they admit contamination of diseases via colonoscopies.

[TheTimeOfMan]

Ain’t it great a significant portion of your tax money goes to support fecal sex?

Extreme murder, assault, suicide and serious communicable disease rates (10-30 TIMES normal).

Paying for adult diapers. Paying for colon repair operations every few years. Tell me again that you don’t care what people do in their bedrooms?

[fwdude]

How long until these people demand that they have a “right” to donate their HIV organs in order to avoid “stigma?”

The same for blood.

I can see a future of Orwellian madness where everyone will be required to be on PrEP to avoid HID/AIDS, just to camouflage the deviants.

[I want the USA back]

“We have a kidney for you, Mr Jones. It’s from someone who is dying of aids. You must accept it or we’ll report you to the thought police for homophobia. We must have equality! It’s unfair that you don’t have aids, Mr Jones. We’ll operate tomorrow.”

“But I never ****ed anyone up the ***! I don’t want aids, doctor!”

“Shut up or you’ll be arrested for a hate crime.”

[fwdude]

The donor in this particular case was a woman who contracted the virus as a very small child through a transfusion. Nevertheless, she speaks as a typical AIDS activist; strident and demanding.