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07 December 2011

Praise: Mayo Clinic Does Organ Transplants for HIV+ Patients

The Mayo Clinic's Dr. Mary Prendergast reports that HIV+ patients receiving kidney and pancreas transplants now have the same prognosis as those patients who are HIV-.
"With the utilization of HAART therapy to control HIV disease, it is very clear that solid organ transplant is both feasible and successful," she says. "We are very excited to be able to offer this service, which will provide end-stage kidney disease patients an alternative to years of difficult dialysis treatment."
Concerns in the past relating to the necessity of utilizing anti-rejection medications to transplant already immunosuppressed HIV-positive patients have been overcome with solid evidence that there is no increase in either the incidence of opportunistic infection or an acceleration of HIV disease, Dr. Prendergast says, as demonstrated in a recent large multi-center U.S.-based study, published last November in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Excellent news.  Kudos to the Mayo Clinic.

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