Important note: Information in this article was accurate in 1998. The state of the art may have changed since the publication date.
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The Associated Press; Saturday, February 14, 1998 14:10:00
Paul Recer, AP Science Writer
Jeffrey Getty, an AIDS patient, said his health improved markedly after he received an experimental transplant of baboon bone marrow, but he found that people were horrified at the idea.
"We're not ready to have part human, part animal people walking around," Getty said Saturday. "There is some deep-seeded psychological barrier against it."
Getty, speaking at the national meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, said his experimental transplant of baboon bone marrow was an attempt to place within his body a partial animal immune system that is resistant to the virus. For a time, it seemed to work.
"I did get better, but we don't know if that was because of the baboon bone marrow," he said. "We couldn't find baboon DNA (genes) in me after three weeks. It apparently was rejected."
What he did find was a visceral reaction against the transplant by many people. He said he endured jokes, angry comments and signs of revulsion.
"We react on a subconscious level to the thought of people who are part animal," said Getty. "I don't know where it is coming from."
He calls the December, 1995, baboon transplant a success because it proved that the procedure could be performed safely.
"That was a good sign because that means that one day technology will allow people to have animal organs," he said.
Getty said the baboon transplant was a last ditch effort to combat his HIV, a disease he has had for 18 years. After the transplant, Getty said his viral load, the amount of HIV virus in his blood, dropped to zero and his immune system got stronger.
In the last few months, however, Getty said his condition has gotten worse and he now is taking experimental anti-viral drugs.
Dr. Suzanne T. Ildstad, a transplant surgeon at the Allegheny University of the Health Sciences, said that Getty is pioneer in xenotransplantation, the transfer of animal organs into humans, that eventually may be the only solution for people who need new hearts, kidneys and livers.
Ildstad said that the number of human donor organs has remained about the same 1988, while the need for such transplants continued to grow.
"Three hundred thousand Americans, candidates for transplants, die every year without even getting on the waiting list," she said. About half of all heart transplant candidates die before they get can find a donor.
The only solution, she said, is to learn how to transplant organs from pigs or other animals.
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