RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) – Six transplant patients tested positive for HIV after receiving infected organs from the Rio de Janeiro organ donation service, state officials said on Friday.
The Rio Health Secretary’s office said a laboratory responsible for conducting tests on donated organs had been suspended after the organs from two donors were transplanted into six people on the states waiting list for transplants.
Other transplant patients were being screened to see if the organs they received were infected, and all stored organs from donors are being tested back to December 2023 when the lab was hired, the health secretariat said.
“This has no precedent,” it said in a statement.
Police are investigating who was responsible for the two erroneous organ tests.
Health authorities were alerted to the problem when a heart transplant recipient complained he was having health issues and tested positive for HIV. Two other patients who received one kidney each also tested positive, they said.
Doctors expressed concern that the serious blunder could undermine public confidence in the organ service and reduce the number of donors.
Rio de Janeiro’s transplant service dates from 2006 and has benefited more than 16,000 people with donated organs, the state government said.
(Reporting by Rodrigo Viga Gaier, writing by Anthony Boadle; editing by Diane Craft)
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