The world’s first kidney transplant involving a living HIV-positive donor has been carried out by doctors in Baltimore.
The pioneering operation at John Hopkins hospital saw a kidney from donor Nina Martinez, 35, transferred to another person with HIV.
Doctors today heralded it a major milestone for people with the virus who need a new organ.
It was previously feared that HIV posed too much of a risk to kidney recipients because the organ would either be damaged from the virus or the drugs used to treat it.
But newer medications are safer and extensive tests showed those with the disease should face the same risks as those without it.
“This is the first time someone living with HIV has been allowed to donate a kidney,” said surgeon Dr Dorry Segev.
“Here’s a disease that in the past was a death sentence and now has been so well controlled that it offers people with that disease an opportunity to save somebody else,” he added. “There are potentially tens of thousands of people ... who could be living kidney donors.”
Ms Martinez said she was inspired to give her kidney by an episode of the long-running TV hospital drama Grey’s Anatomy. “For me it was just kind of an opportunity to be the same as anybody else,” she said.
Both Ms Martinez and the recipient, who asked to remain anonymous, are recovering well and were expected to be released from hospital within the next few days.
Doctors at the same hospital have previously transplanted a liver and a kidney from deceased HIV patients to people living with HIV.
