Four Organ Transplant Recipients Receive HIV as Well

In Chicago, four organ transplant recipients have contracted H.I.V. from an organ donor. This has become the first known case in which an organ recipient has contracted H.I.V. in over a decade. The four patients have also received hepatitis C. This was the first known time that both viruses were spread simultaneously by a transplant. Though exceedingly rare, this type of transmission highlights a known weakness in the system for checking organ donors for infection: the most commonly used tests can fail to detect viral diseases if they are performed too early in the course of the infection. These actions could lead to major changes in the methods of testing. “There are important policy implications,” said Dr. Matthew Kuehnert, director of the Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which is investigating the case. The cases were first reported yesterday by The Chicago Tribune. Two patients were infected at the University of Chicago Medical Center, and also at Rush University Medical Center and Northwestern Memorial Hospital. The transplants were set-up by an organization called the Gift of Hope of Elmhurst, Ill. Officials would not say what organs were transplanted, but a transplant expert not connected with the case said they were most likely the kidneys, liver and either the heart or lungs. Only four organs, and no other tissue, were taken from the donor. The situation was made known when one of the recipients was being evaluated for a retransplant and tested positive for hepatitis C and H.I.V. The donor had tested negative for H.I.V. and hepatitis C, apparently because the infection was too recent to be detected by blood tests. The transmissions of these viruses are possible, but they are also unlikely. In the past decade, 300,000 transplants have occurred without a transmission of the virus. Although it is rare, other diseases like rabies, West Nile fever and a rodent virus called LCMV have also been spread by organ transplants. In all of those cases, patients died. So, instead of these unlucky recipients helping their lives, they received the news that they have contracted two serious viruses that may be fatal. The first known transplant occurred in 1954, which was a kidney transplant. It is logical that diseases have been contracted from transplant earlier because the medical field of that time is not as sterile and up-to-date as it is now. But, technology is not everything because it shows that even in our modern world diseases cannot be picked up early enough to save a transmission. Now, doctors are working on a test that can help to pick up viruses in the early stages and prevent donors from passing it on to recipients.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/14/health/healthspecial/14hiv.html

http://www.nyodn.org/transplant/organ_history.html

http://www.hiv.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hepatitis_C