Six transplant patients have tested positive for HIV after receiving contaminated organs from a Rio de Janeiro organ donation service, the State announced tonight.

The Rio Health Secretariat reported that the laboratory responsible for testing the organs to be transplanted was temporarily closed. Organs from two donors were transplanted into a total of six people on the waiting list.

Authorities are also examining other transplant patients to see if the organs they received were contaminated. All stored donor organs are also being checked, from December 2023 – when the tests were assigned to this particular laboratory – to the present day.

“There is no precedent,” the Secretariat said in its statement.

Police are investigating who is responsible for the two botched tests.

Authorities found out what was happening when a heart transplant patient complained of health problems and tested positive for HIV. Two other patients, who had received one kidney each, subsequently tested positive.

Doctors have raised concerns that this serious error could undermine public confidence in organ transplant services and lead to a decline in the number of donors.

Rio de Janeiro’s transplant service has been operating since 2006 and has found organs for more than 16,000 people to date.