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Hopeful act: A rebel transplants organs from HIV-positive donors

Nature Medicine volume 20, pages 1086–1088 (2014)Cite this article

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David (whose name has been changed to protect his privacy) was one of the lucky ones, as he was among the 20% of South Africans who have private health insurance and therefore could at least receive dialysis. Until 2009, most people with both HIV and kidney disease were caught in a cruel paradox: the South African healthcare system would only cover dialysis as an interim measure until a patient could receive a kidney transplant. Because they were automatically ineligible for transplants, HIV-positive patients were simply sent away to die.

In 2008, after several years of treatment, David got a call from a surgeon at his local hospital. Would David be willing, his doctor asked, to take part in a radical and potentially risky treatment that could grant him a new kidney? “It was the opportunity of a lifetime,” he says. “I was very eager.”

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  1. Sara Reardon is a staff reporter for Nature in Washington, DC, where she covers biomedical research and policy.,

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Reardon, S. Hopeful act: A rebel transplants organs from HIV-positive donors. Nat Med 20, 1086–1088 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nm1014-1086

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