Canadian activists at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City said August 5 that many hospitals in their home country deny people with HIV/AIDS from receiving life-saving organ transplants, The Globe and Mail reports.
While there is no specific rule barring positive people from transplants, Curtis Cooper, MD, told the newspaper “in practice it’s next to impossible to get it done in Canada.” Cooper added that a majority of liver transplants are now done on people living with hepatitis B or C, many of whom are co-infected with HIV.
According to Cooper, many surgeons incorrectly believe that people with HIV/AIDS are poor candidates for transplants because organ recipients must take immune-suppressing medications. However, studies show that the drugs have been proven to have no ill effects on positive people. Countries such as the United States, Britain, Spain and France have been performing organ transplants on people living with HIV for more than a decade.
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stacy beasley, Waco, 2008-08-08 13:36:26
dont be so quick to say that the united states has been giving transplants for over a decade......in texas, i have only found two hospitals that will do the procedure......i have been turned down numerous times for my kidney transplant for the sole reaon of my hiv status.....
Beth Benne, RN, is HIV negative, but
the virus has impacted her life. She currently supervises a biannual HIV/AIDS awareness week as
the director of the student health center at Pierce College, a
community commuter school in Woodland Hills, California.
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Overheard in the Women's Forum
"I think that it's OK to be angry. I am sometimes—it's natural—we are HIV positive. but I always try to not let myself stay there too long. Let yourself feel you are human. You should not beat yourself up about being angry."
