Shortly before International AIDS Day, a 27-year-old woman and her husband announced that she was pregnant – and that the baby was free of the HIV virus – thanks to AIDS Center at Jerusalem’s Hadassah University Medical Center.
A year ago, the Hadassah AIDS Center headed by Prof. Shlomo Maayan, opened Israel's first Fertility Program for men who carry the HIV virus and wish to have healthy children.
The couple from central Israel underwent the process that begins with washing the man’s sperm to eliminate any that carry the virus. The healthy sperm is then used to fertilize the woman’s eggs through intrauterine insemination (IUI) or in vitro fertilization (IVF).
“For us, providing the possibility of a solution for couples who have waited a very long time to bring children to the world is a dream come true,” said Dr. Keren Olshtain of the AIDS Center. Prof. Maayan initiated this unique project in collaboration with Dr. Olshtain, Prof. Neri Laufer, Chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Prof. Alex Simon, Director of Hadassah’s IVF Center, and Prof. Dana Wolf, Director of the Clinical Virology Unit.