California legislators have approved an emergency bill to allow a man with HIV to receive a part of his HIV-positive husband’s liver before the procedure becomes too dangerous, reports Fox News. Democratic Governor Jerry Brown signed the bill immediately, which takes effect right away. The bill, SB1408, was met with no opposition.
The federal government has authorized HIV-infected organ transplants to patients who are also HIV-positive, but it remained illegal in California and in many more states, largely due to the AIDS scare in the 1980s and 1990s.
Since then, advances in testing methods have decreased the fear and stigma regarding donated HIV-positive tissue and antiretroviral medications now make it possible for patients to live longer with HIV. This California law makes it possible for any HIV-positive transplant patient to receive organs from people with HIV, cutting down the waiting time from years to as little as six months.
The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is one of the four US hospitals allowed to conduct HIV-infected organ transplants. Dr. Peter Stock, transplant surgeon, hopes to perform the operation on the man and his husband, but will need time for tests and preparations.
There are 65 HIV-positive patients waiting for liver or kidney transplants at the hospital, including another man who is in urgent need of a liver, but does not have a live donor.
California has one of the country’s longest waitlists for organ transplants, so this legislation will do a lot towards increasing the supply, Stock says, whether or not they are HIV-positive.
There are so many desperate people out there waiting for organs. The donor shortage is such a problem. Literally, we lose people every week.
In 1999, Stock received a grant to transplant healthy livers and kidneys into patients with HIV. There have been hundreds of HIV patients who have received transplants from HIV-negative donors, with the same success rates as transplants to patients without HIV. This has allayed concerns on using immunosuppressant drugs to make sure organ rejection doesn’t happen due to compromised immune systems in HIV-positive patients, Stock said.
President Barack Obama signed a bill in 2013 that allows trials of HIV-infected transplants. The Department of Health and Human Services approved safety regulations in 2015.
Doctors at the John Hopkins University Medical Center performed the first transplant in the US of HIV-infected organs in March, using a liver and kidney from a deceased donor.
About 121,000 Americans are currently on the waitlist for organ transplants, including 21,888 in California alone, according to the United Network for Organ Sharing. An average of 22 people die each day while waiting.
Senator Ben Allen, a Democrat from Santa Monica who authored the bill, says, “With this legislation, we’re saving a life this month, and many more to come.”
