Transplant donor gives four people Aids

Four transplant patients have been infected with Aids from the same donor in the first case of its kind in America for more than a decade.

The transplants occurred in January at three Chicago hospitals, but the victims were not told until a fortnight ago, medical officials said.

Dr Michael Millis, head of transplantation at the University of Chicago Hospitals, said his staff was told of the problem on November 1, and brought in the two patients who had transplants there for testing the next morning.

“It was very surprising and devastating for them, I’ll be honest, just as it would be for any of us,” Dr Millis said.

Tests on the donor for HIV, hepatitis and other conditions came back negative, most likely because they had acquired the infections in the last three weeks before death.

Based on the negative test results, doctors at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and the University of Chicago Medical Center went ahead with the transplants.

The right procedures were followed in testing the donor, said Alison Smith, vice president for operations at Gift of Hope.

Joel Newman, a spokesman for the United Network for Organ Sharing, said the last known example of HIV being transmitted from a donor to a recipient was in 1994.

Dr Millis said: “The organ supply is extraordinarily safe, but this has demonstrated that it’s not 100 per cent safe and it is never going to be 100 per cent safe, at least with technology we have today.”