Six organ transplant patients in Brazil found to have HIV

Six patients who received organ transplants tested positive for the HIV virus in the state of Rio de Janeiro, one case “severe” which the authorities are investigating, the Brazilian Ministry of Health said on Friday October 11.

Tests carried out on two donors by a private laboratory contracted by the Rio de Janeiro health system came back positive for the virus after initially being declared negative. “So far we have received confirmation that two donors have tested positive for HIV and six recipients have also tested positive”said the Minister of Health, Nisia Trindade, in a press release, describing a “serious situation”.

Authorities ordered the suspension of the PCS Lab Saleme laboratory, located in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and the carrying out of new tests on the organs that had been tested there. The ministry also ordered a “urgent audit (…) of the transplant system in Rio de Janeiro”.

The case was discovered on September 10, when a heart transplant patient, who was not HIV positive before the operation, presented to the hospital with neurological symptoms and tested positive for the virus, according to local media. Between 2007 and June 2023, almost half a million Brazilians were infected with HIV, according to the latest bulletin from the Ministry of Health.