World's First Heart Transplant Between HIV Donor To HIV Recipient Successfully Performed

 

The HIV/AIDS epidemic became the focus of many in the 80s when many patients died globally. The movement to find a cure for HIV received more attention with the deaths of popular artists Freddy Mercury and Rod Hudson. After more than four decades, HIV patients are no longer considered waiting to die because ART treatment is advanced enough that the disease cannot be transferred from a patient to a partner even if they have sex.

Now another big history in the world of medicine is noted with the successful transplant of a heart from an HIV patient to a recipient who is also infected with HIV. The recipient is a 60-year-old woman from the United States. The surgery was performed by doctors from Montefiore Health System in New York early last spring.

In the United States the HIV Organ Policy Equity Act has been passed since 2013 allowing HIV patients to donate their organs to other HIV patients. This success opens up the opportunity for HIV patients to receive the organs they need to continue living. It will also increase the number of donors who are known to be lower than the recipients in need.