IL transplant patients infected by donor

Four Chicago-area transplant patients appear to have been infected with HIV after all getting organs from a single donor. The transplants were done at Northwestern Memorial Hospital, Rush University Medical Center and University of Chicago Medical Center. One patient at Northwestern and one at Rush got HIV from the donor organs; two patients at UCMC got HIV and hepatitis C. 

Prior to the transplants, the donor had been screened for HIV and hep C by an organ donor service, Elmhurst, IL-based Gift of Hope Organ & Tissue Donor Network. However, the tests were apparently done during a "window period," during which a patient may be infected, but doesn't yet test positive for a disease. Officials with the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration said that this is the first known transmission of HIV through transplantation since 1986.

To learn more about this issue:
- read this Modern Healthcare item

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