CDC Calls for Additional HIV Testing for Organ Donors

CDC Calls for Additional HIV Testing for Organ Donors
March 19

The Wall Street Journal reported that the first case of transmission of HIV through a live organ donor in more than twenty years has led to a recommendation calling for more HIV testing for organ donors. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has recommended that hospitals test living donors for the HIV virus at seven days at most before the removal and transplantation of their organs.
This recommendation was spurred by the case involving a kidney transplant in 2009, where a kidney transplant recipient contracted the virus from a donor. The male donor admitted to having intimate relations – without protection – after undergoing HIV testing, but before he donated the organ. The procedure was performed in an unnamed hospital in New York; the donor was tested 79 days before the transplant, and at that time, he showed no evidence of infection. He was not, however, tested again at a date that was closer to the removal, and subsequent transplant, of the organ.
These details were based on an investigation conducted by the CDC, and the city and state health officials of New York.
The incident also triggered the revision of the 1994 guidelines of the center, which did not yet consider the timing of screening tests. In addition, the CDC recommends that a test that detects the HIV virus within 8 to 10 days of infection be used.
The WSJ report also reported, however, that the chance of contracting HIV due to a transplant is remote, due to the screening of organ donors for the virus.

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