WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT TO ENSURE THE ONTARIO MINISTRY OF HEALTH ACTS QUICKLY TO APPROVE THE PROPOSAL FOR A CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE IN SOLID ORGAN TRANSPLANT THAT HAS BEEN SUBMITTED TO THE UNIVERSITY HEALTH NETWORK FOR THE TORONTO GENERAL HOSPITAL SITE.
PLEASE READ BELOW AND SIGN THE PETITION.
YOU CAN FIND US ON FACEBOOK HERE: http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=49909223464&ref=mf
Though there have been isolated cases of transplantation in certain parts of Canada, Solid Organ Transplants in Canada, such as life-saving liver transplants, are not consistently and regularly available for HIV-positive people or co-infected people and they need them now. There are no longer any scientific, financial, or moral reasons to act as barriers to the establishment of a Centre of Excellence Solid Organ Transplant at the Toronto General Hospital site of UHN as soon as possible.
If someone has HIV/AIDS and is co-infected with Hepatitis B (HBV) or Hepatitis C (HCV), they can get access to a transplant in the US and other countries, but shamefully there is no formal program which allows them access in Canada.
In other words, a person living with HIV and Hepatitis C or B who needs a liver or kidney transplant is facing discrimination in Canada.
For a country which claims to have one of the best health care systems in the world, this unfounded discrimination is a travesty of health justice.
Several scientific arguments have been used against doing liver transplants on HIV-positive or co-infected people but none of them add up:
- There has been some concern about re-infection in the newly transplanted organ. However, surgeons in Canada willingly do liver transplants on Hepatitis C infected people who do not have AIDS and so obviously the re-infection argument is not strong enough to dissuade them from doing liver transplants for those people who are mono-infected.
- Surgeons have expressed concern about the risk of infection with HIV in the operating room. However, the amount of blood used has decreased in recent years and the practice of universal precautions (gloves) should be the norm in any operation including one where the patient has HIV/AIDS.
- Patients with HIV who are accepted for transplant must have undetectable Viral Load and be on anti-HIV medications, thereby further reducing the risk of transmission.
- The risk of contracting Hepatitis C from a needle stick is 7 times greater than with HIV. Moreover, there is post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP) with a high rate of success which surgeons can take if an accident occurs during surgery. If the worst were to happen under this or any other circumstance, the surgeon would be covered by disability insurance, a risk well understood.
- Finally, and most importantly, scientific clinical trials have demonstrated that people with controlled HIV do as well as HIV negative people post-transplant.
The Toronto General Hospital is a world-class institution with all the requisite expertise and facilities to house the Centre of Excellence in Solid Organ Transplant. Forcing sick Canadians to cross the border to the US for a life saving operation is not only inhumane but more costly than having their transplant done at our own well-respected Toronto General Hospital.
To deny people with HIV/AIDS and those who are co-infected consistent and established access to life saving solid organ transplants is to consign people to an early and avoidable death based on their HIV status. This is simply unethical and immoral given our understanding of these diseases today. Just because there is a shortage of organs does not mean that HIV-positive people should not have the same opportunity for a life saving organ as other more established recipient groups. As has been said, the clinical research clearly demonstrates that people with well-controlled HIV can do as well as people in other transplant groups.
Solid Organ Transplant in this group has now been shown to be both medically viable and cost effective. The time is now for Canada to join the ranks of other industrialized countries like the U.S., UK, France, and Spain and offer Solid Organ Transplants to HIV-positive or co-infected people consistently and regularly.
You can help reverse this unfair and deadly discrimination by signing our petition, joining our group on Facebook and asking friends and family to join as well. The more names we have, the more power we have to effect change. This list will help us spread the word about how unfair it is to have backs turned on people just because they are unfortunate enough to have one or more serious diseases. The time for a Toronto Centre of Excellence for Solid Organ Transplants that consistently and regularly includes HIV-positive people and co-infected people is NOW.
We urge the Ontario Minister of Health to act quickly to approve the proposal for a centre of excellence in solid organ transplant.