UNC Health now offers kidney transplants from donors with HIV to recipients with HIV, dramatically shortening wait times for carefully selected patients living with HIV. This progress builds on more than a decade of experience under the federal HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act and UNC’s integrated expertise in HIV care, transplant nephrology, surgery, and infectious diseases.
“Previously, people with HIV weren’t allowed to be organ donors. The HOPE Act changed that by allowing organs from donors with HIV to go to recipients with well‑controlled HIV, first under research, and the data have been really reassuring,” said Elizabeth Arant, MD, infectious disease physician at UNC. “Outcomes for patients who receive kidneys from donors with HIV are comparable to those receiving organs from donors without HIV. This means a whole pool of organs that used to be discarded, can now be used, and this cuts months to years off the wait time for transplants.”
The HIV Organ Policy Equity Act (HOPE) authorized transplantation of organs from donors with HIV to recipients with well‑controlled HIV under research protocols at select U.S. centers. Multi-site trials showed that kidney outcomes for recipients of organs from donors with HIV were comparable to those for organs from donors without HIV. In addition, the trials showed that patients who received HIV-positive kidneys through the HOPE Act waited only 10 months for their transplant, in comparison to around 60 months for non-HOPE recipients. Now, HIV-positive kidney transplants are being integrated into standard clinical practice, including at UNC.
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