In addition, an unwritten concern was that people with the new disease of AIDS died quickly anyway and some physicians felt using precious organs in such instances was wasteful. While these policies were not made on the basis of scientific data, people with HIV have been left with the legacy and barred from accessing a potentially life-saving procedure. Currently, people with HIV are allowed on waiting lists for organ allocation. However, third-party payers won't cover the cost of transplants and many transplant centers refuse to perform the operations. The ongoing study at UCSF and the planned larger NIH study will provide insight as to whether organ transplants for people with HIV will provide more overall benefit or harm.
Current projects are limited to liver and kidney transplants.
Additional activist pressure is needed to expand the range of organs being evaluated for transplantation. Physicians or patients should let the receptionist know they are inquiring about Dr. Stock's HIV transplant study. Dr. Stock notes that it's best to call 9am-4pm PST to avoid the answering service and increase the likelihood the call will be directed appropriately. Clinical Study Put on Hold Human studies for the new Merck protease inhibitor, MK944A, have been put on hold because of kidney toxicity seen in rats. Kidney toxicity has not been observed in dogs or in rats when either drug was dosed alone.