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South
Africa has the world's largest HIV treatment programme
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Faced with the only
chance to save a child's life, doctors in South Africa have performed a medical
first -- transplanting part of the liver from a HIV-positive mother to her
HIV-negative child, it was announced Thursday.
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The
doctors at the University of Witwatersrand reveal one year after the operation,
the child may not have caught the virus from her new liver
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AFP
report continues:
The
doctors at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg revealed that, one
year after the operation, the child may not have caught the virus from her new
liver.
The
child had a terminal liver disease and would have died without the transplant.
Medication
given to the child "may have prevented the transmission of HIV. However,
we will only know this conclusively over time," said Jean Botha, chief
surgeon at the university.
The
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.
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.
In
2017, 14 children waiting for liver transplants in Johannesburg died before
having the operation.
"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.
A paper detailing the case was published on Thursday in the peer-reviewed AIDS medical journal.
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