HIV-POSTIVE MOTHER DONATES LIVER TO HER CHILD
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Joseph Omoniyi
Doctors in South Africa have performed medical’s first — transplanting part of the liver from an HIV-positive mother to her HIV-negative child.
The doctors at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg who announced this on Thursday, said, the child may not have caught the virus from her new liver, one year after the operation.
The child who had a terminal liver disease and would have died without the transplant was given medication to prevent the transmission of HIV. However, the doctors revealed that it could only be conclusively known over time, whether the child would not be infected.
These team of doctors performed the world’s first liver transplant from a mother living with HIV to her critically-ill HIV-negative child, who had been waiting 180 days for a donor.
They said that the mother and child, who have not been identified, have fully recovered and are in good health.
“We hope that this ground-breaking operation will be the first of many like it and will contribute towards promoting justice and equity in liver transplantation,” June Fabian, research director at the university’s medical centre, said in a press release.
The mother, who was being successfully treated with antiretroviral medication, had repeatedly asked to donate her liver to save her child’s life — posing a major ethical dilemma for doctors due to the risk of HIV transmission.
South Africa has the world’s largest HIV treatment programme and the use of HIV-positive donors could help tackle the severe overall shortage of donors.
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