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Management of CMV infections: recommendations from the infectious diseases working party of the EBMT

Bone Marrow Transplantation volume 33, pages 1075–1081 (2004)Cite this article

Cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection remains one of the most important complications of allogeneic stem cell transplantations (SCT) although the impact on morbidity and mortality has been reduced during the last decade by improvements to management. Several different advances have been made. The Infectious Diseases Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) has therefore produced recommendations reflecting recent changes. The recommendations are graded according to the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC) as described in Table 1.

Table 1 Evidence-based system used to determine strength of recommendations
Full size table

Patients who are uninfected with Cytomegalovirus (CMV), that is seronegative, have a low risk for contracting CMV infection with proper management.1,2,3 It is therefore important to assess CMV serological status as early as possible when a candidate is considered for allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT).

  • If a patient is found to be seronegative, a CMV seronegative donor should be used if possible (AI).

  • All products given before transplantation should either be leukocyte depleted or come from CMV seronegative blood donors (AI).

  • Other prophylactic methods such as antiviral prophylaxis or immune globulin have no role during this phase (DII).

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  1. Department of Haematology, Huddinge University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden

    P Ljungman, P Reusser, R de la Camara, H Einsele, D Engelhard, P Ribaud & K Ward

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  1. P Ljungman
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  2. P Reusser
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C Cordonnier for the Infectious Diseases Working Party of the European Group for Blood and Marrow Transplantation

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Correspondence to P Ljungman.

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Ljungman, P., Reusser, P., Camara, R. et al. Management of CMV infections: recommendations from the infectious diseases working party of the EBMT. Bone Marrow Transplant 33, 1075–1081 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/sj.bmt.1704505

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