Johns Hopkins Approved For HIV-positive Organ Transplants

BALTIMORE (AP) -- Johns Hopkins Medicine has recently received approval to perform organ transplants between HIV-positive donors and recipients.

The hospital announced in a news release Monday that it plans to perform the nation's first kidney transplant between a HIV-positive donor and recipient and the first such liver transplant in the world. These transplants could take place as soon as a suitable organ becomes available and a recipient is identified and prepared.

Dr. Dorry Segev, associate professor of surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, estimates that each year about 500 to 600 HIV-positive would-be organ donors had organs that could save more than 1,000 people if their organs could be used for transplants. The transplants are possible because of the 2013 HOPE Act, which allowed HIV-positive individuals to donate organs.

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