Current opportunities for vaccine prophylaxis of common infections in immunosuppressed adult patients

Abstract

One of the slogans of modern clinical vaccinology is — “You have taken enough care of your children’s health, and now it is time to take care of yourselves and your parents — it is high time to think seriously about vaccinating adults!” It is indeed true that for a long time vaccinology has been confined to the paediatric service only, while general practitioners and specialists of the therapeutic branches of medicine have dealt with vaccination very rarely, and only in relation to seasonal influenza. This is often due to the fact that clinicians often have insufficient or inaccurate information regarding the need for and the effectiveness of vaccination in adult patients, including those with immunosuppression or comorbidity. In some cases, the infrastructure needed to develop a tailored vaccination schedule for adult patient groups at increased risk of developing infectious complications is lacking. This article presents current data with regard to vaccination of immunosuppressed adult patients.