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AIDS patients now accepted for organ transplants
November 11, 1997
Web posted at: 11:20 p.m. EST (0420 GMT)SAN FRANCISCO (CNN) -- AIDS killed Charles Tolbert's kidneys, and it seemed the disease had killed his chances of getting a kidney transplant.
"When (my kidneys) originally failed in 1990, I was told there would be no way I'd be able to receive a transplant," he said.
In those days, AIDS patients couldn't expect to live long enough to receive a transplant, said Dr. Robert Scott.
"Sixteen years ago, when I started taking care of HIV patients, our goal was to try to maintain life for another six, nine months, a year," he said. "That is no longer the case."
CNN's Don Knapp reports
Powerful new drugs for treating AIDS are promising patients longer lives. And the University of California at San Francisco is offering organ transplants to people with AIDS.
The program relies on an untapped source -- good organs from high-risk donors: homosexuals, people with multiple sexual partners, former drug users or people in jail.
So HIV patients get organs that would otherwise not be used. Some doctors view that as a life-saving compromise to an ethical issue.
But, with 15,000 people waiting for transplants and only about 5,000 likely to receive one, other doctors worry that giving organs to AIDS patients could discourage organ donation.
"I think if a lot of people believe we're going to be giving organ transplants and very scarce, valuable organs to people who have HIV ... that could adversely affect organ donations," said Dr. Steven Rudich of the University of California at Davis.
The University of California at San Francisco plans to give organ transplants only to those AIDS patients who have prospects for a good qualify of life for a long time.
For Tolbert, a transplant would mean a release from being hooked to a kidney dialysis machine three times every week for three hours at a time.
"It just really raised my hopes. It made me realize that instead of spending my whole life just doing this, I might be able to travel again," he said.
Correspondent Don Knapp contributed to this report.
Related stories:
- AIDS patient with baboon marrow to leave hospital - January 4, 1996
- Experimental baboon-to-human AIDS transplant begins - December 14, 1995
Related sites:
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- University of California at San Francisco
- HIV InSite - gateway to AIDS knowledge
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- AIDS Daily Summary - short summations from the CDC that give news and highlights of news relating to HIV/AIDS and related diseases.
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