Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2020 Jul;20(7):1773-1779.
doi: 10.1111/ajt.15876. Epub 2020 Apr 12.

COVID-19: A global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic

Deepali Kumar  1 , Oriol Manuel  2 , Yoichiro Natori  3 , Hiroto Egawa  4 , Paolo Grossi  5 , Sang-Hoon Han  6 , Mario Fernández-Ruiz  7 , Atul Humar  1
Affiliations

COVID-19: A global transplant perspective on successfully navigating a pandemic

Deepali Kumar et al. Am J Transplant. 2020 Jul.

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has rapidly evolved and changed our way of life in an unprecedented manner. The emergence of COVID-19 has impacted transplantation worldwide. The impact has not been just restricted to issues pertaining to donors or recipients, but also health-care resource utilization as the intensity of cases in certain jurisdictions exceeds available capacity. Here we provide a personal viewpoint representing different jurisdictions from around the world in order to outline the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on organ transplantation. Based on our collective experience, we discuss mitigation strategies such as donor screening, resource planning, and a staged approach to transplant volume considerations as local resource issues demand. We also discuss issues related to transplant-related research during the pandemic, the role of transplant infectious diseases, and the influence of transplant societies for education and disseminating current information.

Keywords: clinical decision-making; clinical research/practice; donors and donation: donor-derived infections; infection and infectious agents - viral; infectious disease; organ transplantation in general.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
COVID-19 donor screening tool. Donor Screening Tool adapted from Trillium Gift of Life Network Organ Donation Organization, Ontario, Canada
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Kumar D, Humar A. Pandemic influenza and its implications for transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2006;6:1512–1517. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kumar D, Tellier R, Draker R, Levy G, Humar A. Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) in a liver transplant recipient and guidelines for donor SARS screening. Am J Transplant. 2003;3:977–981. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Levi ME, Kumar D, Green M, et al. Considerations for screening live kidney donors for endemic infections: a viewpoint on the UNOS policy. Am J Transplant. 2014;14:1003–1011. - PubMed
    1. Blumberg EA, Fishman JA. Zika Virus in transplantation: emerging infection and opportunities. Am J Transplant. 2017;17:599–600. - PubMed
    1. Kaul DR, Mehta AK, Wolfe CR, Blumberg E, Green M. Ebola virus disease: implications for solid organ transplantation. Am J Transplant. 2015;15:5–6. - PubMed