When applying for a driver’s license, people often just tick the box that says, “Organ donor.”
For those with HIV, it’s a more thought-intensive process.
Regardless of the high support, there’s been a challenge in moving the support into registration.
More than 90 percent of Americans report high support for organ donation, yet only around 50 percent are registered organ donors. This difference becomes even more stark among those with HIV. More than 80 percent support organ donation but only 21 percent are registered.
With a $630,000 grant from the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, Department of Nutrition and Public Health Sciences assistant professor Brittany Shelton is working to increase organ donation from people with HIV to other people with HIV.
“There are two big benefits to this,” Shelton said. “We can transplant more people because introducing organs from donors with HIV reduces demand for organs without HIV, which benefits everyone. Organs that aren’t used for donation can be used for research to look for a cure to HIV.”
Shelton, along with partners at Florida State University, Duke University, the University of Pennsylvania, and the University of Massachusetts, will talk with individuals with HIV, their loved ones, and healthcare providers to understand how they think about donation in the context of HIV to help increase organ donation among these individuals.
“Overwhelmingly clinical trials here in the US have demonstrated that it’s safe and that patient outcomes are really good,” Shelton said. “They’re comparable to receiving an organ from a donor without HIV and that people are transplanted more quickly.”
The researchers aim to identify strategies and routine clinical care that could be implemented or have current practices adjusted to better promote the adoption of HIV-to-HIV organ transplants.
“As time has gone on, we have gotten substantially better at treating HIV and now it’s a chronic condition,” Shelton said. “People with HIV can live long, healthy, and happy lives. As a result, people with HIV can donate their organs to others with HIV and they can do so safely.”
