California will now approve organ donors and allow transplants between HIV positive individuals, according to Medical Daily. Governor Jerry Brown signed the Senate Bill 1408, which will stop doctors and medical professionals from being penalized if they were to complete an organ transplant from an HIV-positive source.
Organ transplants between two HIV-positive people make sense – why did it take so long to approve?
Approved in 2013, But Delayed
The United States approved this type of organ transplant in late 2013. Legislation was attempting to reverse the almost 30-year ban on HIV-positive organs. The plan was also to help direct the government and medical boards to develop guidelines.
Apparently, it takes several years for this to happen, with California finally mobilizing efforts for positive-to-positive transplants.
Why Was There a Ban On HIV-Positive Organs?
The overall ban on HIV-positive organs is largely due to public fear and miseducation. HIV was once a deadly disease that ravaged the gay community for several decades, before public health and its gatekeepers finally stepped in to educate the public about it.
HIV was once thought to be spread by being around someone who has it, with many thinking that it was a disease that only infected gay individuals. Deaths associated with HIV and AIDS have dropped from 40,000 in the mid-1990s to around 10,000 in recent years, according to HealthData.org.
New technology and medication have also quelled the public’s fear of HIV, allowing for education to take hold. Studies have shown that the success rates between HIV-positive and negative patients are about the same.
It Helps Speed Up The Donor System
Transplants between HIV-positive individuals also have an indirect effect on the donor system, according to Medical Daily. Enabling this procedure will remove thousands of people from the waiting list, allowing for the assembly line of donor requests to move more efficiently.
Individuals with advanced stages of HIV tend to suffer from kidney or liver failure. Every 10 minutes, someone new is added to the waiting list, with HIV-positive individuals at risk of not obtaining a lifesaving organ in time.
This new initiative will help save lives, with many hoping that other states expedite this type of positive-to-positive transplant.
The following video talks about the new law, and how it can save lives:
Featured image by 2011 Caribbean HIV Conference on Flickr/CC by ND-2.0
