United States: HIV-Positive patient who requires kidney or liver transplants in the US can now receive organs from donors who are also HIV-positive without being enrolled in trials.
The Biden government stated that green-lighting this regulation would have a positive impact by reducing a long waiting list time and further improving the availability of organ transplants.
More about the news
As per the US Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, “This rule removes unnecessary barriers to kidney and liver transplants, expanding the organ donor pool and improving outcomes for transplant recipients with HIV,” CNN Health reported.
Prior to 2013 HIV, positive organ donation was not allowed in the US.
AIDS stands for acquired immunodeficiency syndrome, and it is caused by HIV, the human immunodeficiency virus, which compromises the body’s immune system.
The HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, signed in 2013, enabled analysis of organ transplantation between donors with HIV and recipients with HIV.
From Wednesday, kidney and liver transplants where the donor and the recipient of the organs are infected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus are no longer deemed to be in clinical research.
According to Carole Johnson, administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration, “This new policy is a significant step forward in expanding access and reducing wait times for life-saving organ transplants for people with HIV,” CNN Health reported.
An analysis of previous studies shows that antiretroviral medications and improvements in the management of HIV have made solid organ transplantation in patients with HIV safe and effective.
About donations
The first, live-donor kidney and liver transplants performed using a deceased donor with HIV and two recipients, also living with HIV, took place in 2016.
Then, in 2019, an HIV-positive woman from Atlanta became the first in the whole world to donate a kidney to a stranger.
The HHS clinical research requirements were proposed to be eliminated in September by HHS to gain access to organ transplantation for HIV-positive people.
However, the National Institutes of Health or NIH said it wants public input on another change to the research criteria for transplantation of other types of organs, such as the heart, lung, and pancreas, from HIV-positive donors to HIV-positive recipients.
HHS has called for a new change in regulations concerning kidney and liver transplants between AIDS patients because statistics have proved that such transplants are harmless and can effectively be done.