Transplant experiment relies on hepatitis C-infected kidneys

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WASHINGTON — Some patients facing a years-long wait for a kidney transplant are jumping ahead in line thanks to a startling experiment: They’re agreeing to an organ almost sure to infect them with hepatitis C.

Knowingly transmitting a dangerous virus may sound drastic, but two leading transplant centres are betting the strategy will save lives, if new medications that promise to cure hepatitis C allow use of organs that today go to waste.

Pilot studies are underway at the University of Pennsylvania and Johns Hopkins University to test transplanting kidneys from deceased donors with hepatitis C into recipients who don’t already have that virus. If the research eventually pans out, hundreds more kidneys — and maybe some hearts and lungs, too — could be transplanted every year.

“We always dreaded hepatitis C,” said Dr. Peter Reese, a Penn kidney specialist who is helping lead the research. “But now hepatitis C is just a different disease,” enough to consider what he calls the trade-off of getting a new kidney years faster but one that comes with a hopefully treatable infection.