[Isaiah_61]

There are a couple of things that are not clear from the article. Are all of those affected transplant recipients? I received a kidney/pancreas transplant in 1998 and had the kidney fail in 2000 because of a virus. The virus is common to 40% of the population and it turned out that the virus attacking my kidney was due to the combination of immunosuppresant drugs that I was on. It would not suprise me to find that this unknown disease is caused by some of the newer, more powerful, immunosuppresants letting some innocuous virus run rampant.

[MoralSense]

I'll bet you're right, Isaiah. I've got a 20-year-old kidney transplant, and I'm basically fine. But I'm still taking the old first-generation drugs. They're always coming up with new drug combinations, and I would look into that, too.

Also (I skimmed), does the article say how long after transplant the condition showed up?

[MarkWar]

>It would not suprise me to find that this unknown disease is caused by some of the newer, more powerful, immunosuppresants letting some innocuous virus run rampant.

If organ recipients are given massive doses of powerful immunosuppressants, then don't the people become little more than walking Petri dishes for whatever might be contained within the implanted organ?

1) Accidently, it seems that such a person could pass along the contamination to a really large number of people.

2) If this black market thing is really wide spread, it seems to me that it's just barely possible that someone really evil minded could arrange for badly contaminated organs to be implanted on purpose, if the contamination proved to be something which would grow in the "host" and get passed on...

Mark W.

[ValerieUSA]

I received a kidney/pancreas transplant in 1998 and had the kidney fail in 2000 because of a virus.

Did you get another kidney yet? My husband didn't survive his kidney/pancreas transplant in 1997. It's good to see a success, even if it is limited. However, I think organ transplantation needs to soon become archaic. Unfortunately, it generates so much money for hospitals and doctors and clinics that it looks like it is here to stay rather than being replaced with superior treatments.