Q) Now that patients are living with HIV/AIDS, can they donate kidneys or receive a kidney transplant?
Kidney disease often has multiple causes, including hypertension, diabetes, inherited conditions, and viral illnesses. The latter include primarily HIV, hepatitis C, and hepatitis B. With advances in the treatment of viral illnesses, the question of whether patients with these viruses can donate or receive a kidney transplant is being discussed not only in the United States but also worldwide.
The most recent CDC figures estimate that more than 1.1 million people in the US are living with HIV, of whom one in six (or nearly 16%) are undiagnosed. There are approximately 50,000 new infections reported annually. 2
The Organ Transplant Amendments Act of 1988 banned HIV-positive people from donating organs. However, with the introduction of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART, now often referred to as active antiretroviral therapy ) and the effective prophylaxis and management of opportunistic infections, mortality has been reduced. HIV/AIDS is often seen as a chronic disease and not the death sentence it once was. 3 Since the development of HAART, there have been successful transplants to HIV-positive recipients from non–HIV-infected donors.
In November 2013, President Obama signed the HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act, which lifted the ban on using organs from HIV-infected donors. The legislation directs the Department of Health and Human Services and the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network to develop standards to make these transplants possible. 4
Although there have not been any documented cases of transplants from HIV-infected donors to HIV-infected recipients in this country, such transplants have been very successful in South Africa. 5 There, to qualify for kidney transplant, all recipients must have proven adherence, virologic suppression, and immune constitution. Donor suitability is defined as HIV infection (confirmed with the use of enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay), absence of proteinuria, and a normal kidney as assessed with post hoc renal biopsy. 5
One of the chief concerns has been the effect of further immunosuppression on the recipients and the possibility of disease progression. Although the sample size is limited (four transplants), data from the available cases indicate no evidence of organ rejection at 12 months post-transplantation. In addition, the recipients’ CD4 counts remained lower than baseline due to immunosuppressive therapy. All four patients maintained a viral load of less than 50 copies, which suggested that any virus transplanted along with the kidney had not affected control of HIV infection. 5 However, it should be noted that many of the agents used for posttransplant maintenance immunosuppression (mycophenolate mofetil, cyclosporine, tacrolimus, and sirolimus) have antiretroviral properties. 3
HIV patients in the US must meet the following criteria to be listed for a transplant:
• Diagnosis of ESRD with at least a five-year life-expectancy
• CD4 count of > 200 cells/ μL for at least six months
• Undetectable HIV viremia (< 50 HIV-1 RNA copies/mL)
• Demonstrated adherence to stable antiviral regimen for at least six months
• Absence of AIDS-defining illness following successful immune reconstitution 6
