Medicine: Doctors Announce Breakthrough in HIV-To-HIV Organ Transplants
A group of surgeons in Baltimore announced a major breakthrough in science and medicine after they finally made a successful organ transplant to an HIV-positive patient from an HIV-positive donor. This has been a long battle for all stakeholders, with millions of AIDS patients all over the world hoping against hope that something positive will eventually come out in the search for treatment. While this one is nothing close to a treatment, it cannot be denied that it is a welcoming option, especially for those with AIDS who already have failing livers or kidneys.
According to ABC News, Johns Hopkins University have confirmed that the recipients, one receiving a kidney and the other receiving a liver from a deceased donor, are already in recovery. In the past, organs from people infected with HIV are no longer deemed suitable for donation. According to a transplant expert in Hopkins, Dr. Dorry Segev, the breakthrough is nothing short of a new opportunity in life for patients who have been suffering for so long. The doctor is a prominent name in pushing for the right to perform the operation to patients when the U.S. government banned it for more than two decades. He believes that hundreds of HIV patients will be benefiting from it.
Most people are left wondering why there's a need to perform an HIV-to-HIV transplant when patients can just seek a donor who isn't a carrier. Accordingly, the most advanced and modern medications designed for AIDS today have transformed the disease into a chronic type of illness instead of a fast killer. As a result, patients are expected to live longer than expected while in the process suffering organ failure. While HIV patients are allowed to receive organs from donors who don't have the disease, everyone knows how long that line is. So if this new method will be ironed out, it means there will be better opportunities for patients to take organs that are in a way specifically intended for them since HIV-positive donors cannot give their organs to anyone who needs that but doesn't suffer from the same disease.
