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Vaccination recommendations have previously been developed and published separately by the European Group of Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) and the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), by the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and by the American Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (ASBMT).1,786,787 The purpose of the vaccination schedule in these joint updated guidelines is to provide guidance for hematopoietic cell transplant (HCT) centers around the globe.
Antibody titers to vaccine-preventable diseases (for example, tetanus, polio, measles, mumps, rubella) decline during the 1–10 years after allogeneic or autologous HCT788–792 if the recipient is not revaccinated. The clinical relevance of decreased Abs to vaccine-preventable diseases among HCT recipients is not immediately apparent because a limited number of cases of vaccine-preventable diseases are reported among HCT recipients. However, vaccine-preventable diseases still pose risks to the population. In addition, evidence exists that certain vaccine-preventable diseases, such as pneumococcal infection, Haemophilus influenzae type b infection, measles, varicella and influenza, can pose increased risk for HCT recipients.193,309,793–798 Therefore, HCT recipients should be routinely revaccinated after HCT so that they can experience immunity to the same vaccine-preventable diseases as others (Table 5). Although several studies have evaluated the safety and immunogenicity (for example, serological studies of Ab titers after vaccination) of different vaccines in allogeneic HCT recipients, limited and only indirect data were found regarding vaccine efficacy among HCT recipients (that is, whether vaccinated HCT recipients have decreased attack rates of infections compared with unvaccinated HCT recipients).798
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Author notes
Dr M Tomblyn, Blood & Marrow Transplantation, H Lee Moffitt Cancer Center & Research Institute, 12902 Magnolia Drive FOB 3, Tampa, FL 33612, USA. E-mail: marcie.tomblyn@moffitt.org
Authors and Affiliations
Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden
P Ljungman
Hopital Henri Mondor, Creteil, France
C Cordonnier
Universitatsklinik Wurzburg Medizinische Klinik und Poliklinik II, Wurzburg, Germany
H Einsele
University of Washington/Seattle Children's Hospital and Regional Medical Center, Seattle, WA, USA
J Englund
Institue of Tropical Medicine, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
C M Machado
Department of Medicine, Oncology, Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
J Storek
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA
Ljungman, P., Cordonnier, C., Einsele, H. et al. Vaccination of hematopoietic cell transplant recipients.
Bone Marrow Transplant44, 521–526 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/bmt.2009.263