Israeli physicians have successfully conducted the world’s first kidney transplant between two living people who have HIV, The Jerusalem Post reports. An HIV-positive woman donated one of her kidneys to her husband, who had been on dialysis for two years and who is also living with the virus. The surgery was conducted a few months ago at the Sourasky Medical Center in Tel Aviv. According to the hospital, the man is now back at work and is functioning normally.

The process was complex because the couple had to coordinate their drug regimens in order to reduce the risk of organ rejection as well as minimize other complications relating to the antiretrovirals’ ability to suppress the virus.

Previous kidney and liver transplants have been conducted between brain dead people with HIV and those living with the virus. The success rates of these surgeries have risen almost on par with those among HIV-negative people. Following a unanimous vote in the U.S. Senate, a House of Representatives committee voted in July to remove the U.S. ban on HIV-positive organ donors.

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