Call To Tighten Up Transplant Rules (Press, 28 May 1985)
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Summary: Call To Tighten Up Transplant Rules (Press, 28 May 1985)
On 28 May 1985, two kidney specialists, Dr Ross Bailey from Christchurch and Dr James Neale from Wellington, urged for stricter organ transplant procedures in New Zealand to mitigate the risk of spreading the A.I.D.S. virus. They recommended that New Zealand adopt Australian guidelines that include the A.I.D.S. antibody test to identify individuals who might have been exposed to the virus. This recommendation comes from the understanding that the A.I.D.S. virus is transmissible through body fluids, raising the alarm that it could also be transmitted via transplanted organs, particularly kidneys. The doctors, who are members of the New Zealand Council of the Australasian Society of Nephrology, expressed concerns that transplant recipients, who typically take immunosuppressive drugs to prevent organ rejection, could be at an even greater risk as these medications weaken their immune systems. They proposed that both patients and potential donors should be screened for membership in high-risk groups, such as homosexuals and intravenous drug users, and that anyone testing positive for A.I.D.S. exposure should be excluded from the transplant process, whether as a donor or a recipient. In cases involving deceased donors, the transplant team should assess the likelihood of the deceased being in a high-risk group and carry out A.I.D.S. antibody testing. Concurrently, the World Health Organisation (WHO) released data indicating that estimated exposures to the A.I.D.S. virus in the United States range from 400,000 to 800,000 individuals, with an additional 80,000 in Europe. The WHO advocated that blood and organ donors should be screened for A.I.D.S. exposure whenever feasible. They noted that while A.I.D.S. predominantly affected homosexual men and drug users in the United States, Europe, and Australia, the disease appeared to be transmitted heterosexually in Africa, with significant involvement of women in the statistics.
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