Four patients at three Chicago hospitals got HIV after receiving infected donor organs.

This is the first known instance of HIV transmission from an infected donor in the U.S. in more than 20 years. It happened despite proper procedures for testing donors and organs that experts say were followed to the letter.

The organs tested negative for HIV and hepatitis C because it takes 22 days from the time a person is infected until their immune system forms antibodies blood tests can detect. The donor was tested to rule out the presence of any transmissible disease. Tests for HIV, hepatitis and other conditions came back negative, possibly because the donor had acquired the infections in the last three weeks before death, or because the tests might not have picked up the diseases....

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/hiv.organ.transplant.2.566288.html

What can be done to prevent this in the future?

Not too much, really. With that 22-day delay, an infection contracted during that period is going to go undetected. The only possibility is to try and increase the sensitivity of the tests or develop completely new ones that can actually identify the microbes themselves. And that will probably prove to be much more difficult than it would appear on the surface. Plus, it might easily lead to many false-positives.

Wow. That really sucks. Given the need for immunosuppressive thearapy in organ receipients, the prognosis for these patients is grim.

Even if these people had been told that there was the tiniest bit chance the organs had HIV, I bet they still would have taken that risk. OK, they were dying anyways right? And HIV doesn't automatically mean AIDS right?
But it does suck in a big way. If you believe in God, you have to take this as a sign that he seriously wants you dead, after all, doesn't everythign happen for a reason?

I think dying from AIDS is one of the most painful, horrendous ways to die. I feel sorry for the recipients. :(

I figure the science geniuses around here could figure out how to stop this with the transplants. There has to be something they can do.