Recent news reports focused on possible competition to the United Network for Organ Sharing to run the nation's transplant system and on a resurgence of interest in organ transplantation in patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus.
* The United Network for Organ Sharing is reportedly facing competition to run the U.S. transplant system it has operated for 13 years. The Associated Press said on June 14 that a new Pittsburgh firm--the Center for the Support of the Transplant Committee--is bidding to run the transplant system. The Department of Health and Human Services plans to award a new contract by the end of September. UNOS and HHS have often disagreed over how to run the system. However, the Pittsburgh company reportedly has ties to the University of Pittsburgh, which has tended to agree with HHS over transplant issues.
* Nature Medicine has reported a resurgence of interest in offering transplants to patients infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (2000;6:365). The journal noted that HIV patients are living longer than they once did but are therefore susceptible to death from other causes, including end-stage organ disease. According to Nature Medicine, the University of California San Francisco is beginning a $1 million study of organ transplants in HIV-infected patients; the University of Pittsburgh has performed a few kidney transplants since 1997 in patients with HIV; and the University of Maryland and New York's Mount Sinai are also interested in conducting such transplants.
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