Bangalore, Karnataka -- (SBWIRE) -- 03/21/2012 -- John Potaki, a 31-year-old military officer from Togo, never imagined that his love for life would make him HIV positive, which in turn, would result in lifethreatening kidney failure. A team of doctors from a Bangalore hospital came to his rescue: they treated him by transplanting his mother's kidney into him, despite his HIV status.

John and Mohamed Sayeed (name changed), a nurse from Ethiopia, both HIV positive, underwent successful kidney transplantation and are recovering. "The transplants, the first such in Karnataka, are considered path-breaking for two reasons: one, nephrologists are seeing a growing number of patients who need kidney transplants because of associated conditions found in HIV+ patients; second, for the HIV+, it is a fight to even find a place that accepts them for dialysis ," said Dr Lloyd Vincent, senior consultant nephrologist with Narayana Hrudayalaya.

Both John and Mohamed contacted doctors of the hospital through email, after several countries denied them treatment because of their HIV status. After getting positive response from the doctors, they flew down to Bangalore. The doctors put them on pre-transplantation treatment for about four months.

"It is not the surgical process, but medical management of these patients that is complicated. The patients need to be trained about side-effects of multiple medications ," said Dr Vincent.

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Although prevalence of HIV is coming down in India, 5% of HIV+ patients are at risk of developing failure of organs like kidney and liver. "This is because the affected blood flows through these two vital organs and makes them weak," said Dr Ishthiaque Ahmed, nephrologist.