NYU Langone Health announced that surgeons performed what the institution described as the world’s first human immunodeficiency virus-positive-to-human immunodeficiency virus-positive lung transplant.

The recipient, Bertrand Nelson, aged 56 years, had been living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for nearly 26 years. According to NYU Langone, Nelson was diagnosed in 2000 with HIV and sarcoidosis, which initially had affected his lungs and later attacked his liver after he acquired Legionnaires’ disease in 2021 and was hospitalized with severe pneumonia. His condition worsened in 2024, when he required increasing amounts of oxygen to breathe, and he was evaluated in 2025 at the NYU Langone Transplant Institute for HOPE dual-organ transplantation.

The transplant was performed on March 21, 2026. Stephanie H. Chang, MD, surgical director of lung transplantation at NYU Langone, performed the lung transplant, and Karim J. Halazun, MD, surgical director of liver transplantation at NYU Langone, performed a liver transplant during the same operation.

According to NYU Langone, transplantation of HOPE hearts and abdominal organs has been performed previously, but HIV-positive-to-HIV-positive lung transplantation had not. The institution stated that NYU Langone Transplant Institute is one of the only transplant centers in the United States equipped and approved under a research protocol to perform HOPE lung transplants.

Sapna Mehta, MD, clinical director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute and co-architect of the research protocol sanctioned by the US Food and Drug Administration, said, “This is a watershed moment for the HIV-positive community and represents real progress in creating equity in organ transplantation.”

Approximately 1.2 million people are living with HIV in the United States, according to NYU Langone. The press release stated that people with HIV can live long, healthy lives because of advances in antiretroviral therapy. According to NYU Langone, most people using antiretroviral therapy are unable to transmit the virus and have near-normal life expectancies.

Following the procedure, Nelson was off oxygen for the first time in four years, according to NYU Langone. Nelson said, “There are so many others who need access to this level of care, and the more organs that become available, the better the odds of finding the right match and living a long life.”

“[T]his marks an expansion of options for people in need of a lifesaving organ,” Dr. Mehta said.

Source: NYU Langone Health