Based on data from the national Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN).
If an organ donor is an active intravenous drug user, their risk of acute hepatitis C (HCV) infection is higher than almost any other behavioral risk factor.
The increasing opiate epidemic in the U.S. has impacted every region. Because of this tragedy, more transplants, especially those from donors that could place the potential recipient at increased risk of disease transmission, are being completed.
Though there is research detailing the successful use of organs from donors who are currently using and abusing drugs, challenges remain and clinicians and patients continue to be cautious, especially regarding the risks of inadvertently acquiring viral hepatitis and/or HIV.
Fortunately, hepatitis B remains relatively uncommon in the U.S. and unanticipated HIV transmissions have not been documented since the new Public Health Service (PHS) Increased Risk Guidelines were put into place in 2013. The safety and efficacy of HCV treatments in transplant is improving day by day, but according to cases studied in 2018 by the OPTN Ad Hoc Disease Transmission Advisory Committee (DTAC), unexpected hepatitis C (HCV) donor-derived transmissions have been on the rise.
Read more about the committee’s findings and an update on its work presented at the spring 2019 regional meetings.
In focus
Getting patients ready for transplant sooner
How Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia reduced its inactive kidney waitlist by 17 percent
2018 living donor transplants increase 11 percent
In 2018, UNOS reported that the number of living donor transplants was nearly 6,900, the highest since 2005.
Similar survival rates for PAK and SPK transplants
A new study by UNOS researchers in the American Journal of Transplantation shows that sequential pancreas transplant after a kidney transplant (PAK) and simultaneous pancreas-kidney (SPK) transplants result in similar patient survival rates.