Page 21 - HOH

A28 SCIENCE
Friday 29 March 2019
U.S. begins organ transplants from living donors who have HIV

By LAURAN NEERGAARD sees the transplant system.
AP Medical Writer One question is whether
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sur- receiving an organ from
geons in Baltimore have someone with a different
performed what's thought strain of HIV than their own
to be the world's first kidney poses any risks, but so far
transplant from a living do- there have been no safety
nor with HIV, a milestone for problems, said UNOS chief
people with the AIDS virus medical officer Dr. David
— and one that could free Klassen.
up space on the transplant Hopkins' Segev said Mon-
waiting list for everyone. day's kidney transplant was
Nina Martinez of Atlanta a world first. Doctors had
traveled to Johns Hop- hesitated to allow people
kins University to donate a still living with HIV to do-
kidney to an HIV-positive nate because of concern
stranger, saying she "want- that their remaining kidney
ed to make a difference in would be at risk of damage
somebody else's life" and from the virus or older med-
counter the stigma that too ications used to treat it.
often still surrounds HIV in- But newer anti-HIV medica-
fection. tions are safer and more
Many people think "some- In this image made from video provided by Johns Hopkins Medicine, Nina Martinez of Atlanta is effective, Segev said. His
body with HIV is supposed wheeled into a Baltimore operating room to become who is thought to be the world’s first kidney team recently studied the
to look sick," Martinez, 35, transplant living donor with HIV, on Monday, March 25, 2019. kidney health of 40,000
told The Associated Press Associated Press HIV-positive people and
before the operation. "It's concluded that those with
a powerful statement to kidney, who chose to re- year U.S. ban on transplants rica, have doctors begun well-controlled HIV and no
show somebody like myself main anonymous, also is re- between people with HIV. transplanting organs from other kidney-harming ail-
who's healthy enough to covering well, Hopkins said. There's no count of how deceased donors with HIV ments like high blood pres-
be a living organ donor." "Here's a disease that in the many HIV-positive patients into patients who also have sure should face the same
At a news conference past was a death sentence are among the 113,000 the virus, organs that once risks from living donation as
Thursday, Martinez said she and now has been so well people on the nation's would have been thrown someone without HIV.
was "feeling good" and controlled that it offers waiting list for an organ away. "There are potentially tens
hopes she's opened doors people with that disease transplant. HIV-positive pa- Since 2016, 116 such kidney of thousands of people
for other would-be donors. an opportunity to save tients can receive trans- and liver transplants have living with HIV right now
"To be able to leave this somebody else," said Dr. plants from HIV-negative been performed in the U.S. who could be living kidney
kind of medical legacy for Dorry Segev, a Hopkins sur- donors just like anyone else. as part of a research study, donors," said Segev, who
me was quite important," geon who pushed for the Only in the last few years, according to the United has advised some other
she said. HIV Organ Policy Equity, or spurred by some pioneer- Network for Organ Shar- hospitals considering the
The recipient of Martinez's HOPE, Act that lifted a 25- ing operations in South Af- ing, or UNOS, which over- approach.q

2 letters by inventor Nikola

Tesla surface in Serbia

By JOVANA GEC cess to this documenta- named after him.
Associated Press tion," said Viktor Lazic, from An ethnic Serb born in
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Adligat. He explained that 1856 in the Austrian Empire
A culture society in Serbia the letters had been known in present-day Croatia,
made public this month to exist but could not be Tesla spent most of his life
two letters that they say traced for around 20 years. abroad, working in Buda-
were written by late 19th- Written in Cyrillic alphabet, pest and Paris before emi-
and early 20th-century in- the letters refer to Tesla's re- grating to the U.S. in 1884.
A shadow of Milica Kesler, curator and archivist is cast onto a
poster of Nikola Tesla at the Nikola Tesla museum in Belgrade, ventor and electricity pio- lations with another promi- In Belgrade, the Tesla Mu-
Serbia, Thursday, March 7, 2019. neer Nikola Tesla. nent scientist of Serb origin, seum honors the scientist's
Associated Press The Adligat group told The Mihajlo Pupin, Lazic said. legacy, including a vast ar-
Associated Press they re- Tesla is best known for ray of personal items, tens
cently obtained the letters developing the alternat- of thousands of documents
from a collector and veri- ing current that helped and awards.
fied their authenticity with safely distribute electricity Curator Milica Kesler said
multiple sources. Dated at great distances, includ- the museum's archives in-
Dec. 28, 1934 and Jan. 12, ing from the hydro-electric clude the drafts of the re-
1935, the letters were sent plant at Niagara Falls in cently-publicized letters.
to the Yugoslav consul in the mid-1890s. He experi- "The only difference is that
the United States at the mented with X-ray and ra- they (drafts) were written in
time, Radoje Jankovic. dio technology, working in pencil" and contain Tesla's
"This is the first time that rivalry with Thomas Edison. remarks and notes, Kesler
public has full and free ac- Car manufacturer Tesla is said.q