Economic Considerations in Using HCV and HIV Positive Donors for Kidney Transplant

Abstract

End Stage Renal Disease is becoming more prevalent in the United States of America, with demand for kidney transplant exceeding the available organ supply. A novel method to increase the donor pool has been to consider transplanting organs from deceased patients who have had Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) or Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infections. Transplants with HCV infected kidneys are becoming more prevalent, due to increased organ supply due to increased mortality from injection opioid use. Similarly, deceased donor transplants using kidneys infected with HIV have become more common following the passage of the “HIV Organ Policy Equity (HOPE) Act” in 2013. These novel transplant strategies present distinct socioeconomic impacts which differ from those of prior transplant practices. Here, we have reviewed the costs and benefits of receiving a kidney transplant from deceased donors infected with HIV or HCV, compared to receiving a non-viremic kidney transplant.