In US, first kidney transplant from donor with HIV

The kidney of a 35-year-old HIV-positive woman has been transplanted into another patient with the AIDS virus, US surgeons announced yesterday, in a major medical breakthrough. The surgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore performed the operation on Monday, calling it the first in the world of its kind. The donor, identified as Nina Martinez, was to address reporters alongside her doctors at 1:00 pm (1700 GMT).

The recipient has not been named. Martinez initially wanted to donate the kidney to a friend, but after that friend passed away, she pursued her wish to be an organ donor, Johns Hopkins said. Before this transplant operation, doctors had believed it was too risky to leave an HIV-positive patient with only one kidney. The decision to move forward with the transplant highlights the confidence scientists have in current anti-retroviral medication, which allows those with HIV to lead normal, productive lives.

Thousands of people die each year in the United States awaiting organ transplants. Dorry Segev, an associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, says about 500-600 HIV-positive patients could donate organs each year, benefitting about 1,000 people with the virus. Until now, only organs removed from dead HIV-positive patients were eligible for transplants to people with the virus.