Four get AIDS virus from organ donor

[Guest guest]

Four get AIDS virus from organ donor

Tue Nov 13, 11:49 AM ET

An organ donor infected four transplant patients with

the AIDS virus in what a donor group says is the first

such transmission in the U.S. in at least 13 years.

The transplants occurred in January at three Chicago

hospitals. The patients infected with HIV and the

virus for hepatitis C did not learn of their status

until the last two weeks, according to medical

officials.

Dr. Millis, chief of the transplantation

program at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said

his staff was told of the problem on Nov. 1, and

brought in the two patients who had transplants there

for testing the next morning.

" It was very surprising and devastating for them, I'll

be honest, just as it would be for any of us, " Millis

said.

Initial tests on the donor for HIV, hepatitis and

other conditions came back negative, most likely

because the donor had acquired the infections in the

last three weeks before death. Personal details about

the donor were not released by medical official

officials, who cited privacy laws.

Based on the negative test results, doctors at

Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University

Medical Center and the University of Chicago Medical

Center went ahead with the transplants. Officials did

not say which organs were transplanted.

The right procedures were followed in testing the

donor, said Alison , vice president for

operations at Gift of Hope.

Newman, a spokesman for the United Network for

Organ Sharing, said there has not been another known

case of HIV being transmitted from a donor to a

recipient since federal high-risk donor guidelines

were adopted in 1994.

Those guidelines were made in response to a 1985 case,

when the AIDS virus was still relatively new and few

safeguards were in place to prevent transmission.

Newman said Tuesday that officials were checking to

see if there were any other similar cases before 1994.

Since the 1985 case, in which AIDS killed three

patients who'd received organs from a Virginia man,

there have been more than 400,000 organ transplants in

the U.S. without a reported case of transmission

through organs.

Millis said he thinks the process can be improved but

may never be completely failproof.

" The organ supply is extraordinarily safe, but this

has demonstrated that it's not 100 percent safe and it

is never going to be 100 percent safe, at least with

technology we have today, " Millis said.

http://news./s/ap/20071113/ap_on_he_me/aids_transplants