New Initiative in ID Transplant Support The Division of Infectious Diseases is continuing to expand the services offered by their clinical faculty. Specialty clinics are available for HIV patients, Travel Medicine, Bone and Joint Infections, Transplant Patients and Women’s Care. In particular, the HIV Program provides multidisciplinary care and support services for nearly 1000 patients. A longstanding Ryan White Care Act program, administrated by Valerie Assey, MSN, provides assistance to HIV-infected patients with limited resources. Inpatient consulting services for General Infectious Diseases also expanded to 3 separate teams, providing around the clock consultations at MUHA, ART, the VA, and for Transplant ID cases at all campus locations.
One of the newly expanded services is the provision of ID Transplant support to the Transplant program here at MUSC. “For years now MUSC has been and continues to be a very active transplant center with much success and a good reputation,” says Dr. Dannah Wray, MD, newly appointed Director of Transplantation and Infectious Disease Services. Since his start with ID transplant in 2002, Dr. Wray has continued to strive to improve the program’s support. According to Dr. Wray, “the goal is not to change the program that is already in place, but to expand its support.”
The program’s overall goal is to be proactive and involved with pre-transplant evaluation, antimicrobial prophylactic protocol, and research. To help in this initiative, two new faculty members have joined the ID Transplant team, Assistant Professor Sean Boger, MD, PharmD and Instructor Claire Magauran, MD. The Division is also starting a new HIV transplant program for patients who are HIV positive to receive renal transplants. According to Dr. Wray, patients who are HIV positive with liver and kidney failure are now able to receive medications that will allow them to have a lower risk of infection and live longer. Organ transplants for HIV patients with liver and kidney failure are being done nationwide. MUSC is currently the only center in the southeast that is doing solid organ transplants.
The ID transplant program is now starting solid kidney transplants with patients who are HIV positive. This new initiative is under the leadership of Dr. Charles Bratton in the Department of Surgery, Dr. Claire Maguaran in Infectious Diseases, and Dr. Sarat Kuppachi with the Division of Nephrology. The program is in the process of considering starting liver transplants for HIV positive patients as well.
According to Division Director, J. Michael Kilby, MD, “We are particularly proud that, despite the daunting economic challenges of this past year, our Division was able to maintain financial stability while expanding and diversifying a number of critically important clinical services, hiring new expert care providers, and dramatically improving clinical care benchmarks and patient satisfaction scores.
Our growth reflects the dynamic and diverse nature of Infectious Diseases—from basic science to clinical care to epidemiology—from classrooms to clinics to bedside teaching—from the scope of global and public health programmatic issues to the fundamentals of one doctor focused on the concerns of one patient.
A substantial part of our mission is service-oriented. Through partnerships with and competitive grants from federal and state agencies, we are able to provide comprehensive care to the growing number of people with HIV infection in our area without incurring institutional debt. Nearly half of these HIV-infected patients have no insurance of any kind and many of the rest require partial funding support to make treatment feasible. The results can be breathtaking: a drastic reduction in hospitalizations improved quality of life and returns to the workforce, and projected life expectancies indistinguishable from those of HIV-negative adults.”
To learn more about the program you may contact the Division of Infectious Diseases at 792-4541. | 
