Pretransplant Screening for Infection Exposure: Approach to the Patients with Epidemiologic and Geographic Risk Factors

Prevention of infection and optimizing vaccination in the solid organ transplant candidate and recipient

“…In addition to routine screening (Table 1), an SOT candidate's risk of infection should be evaluated pretransplant by obtaining an extensive medical and social history including prior infections, travel history, prior and current occupation, environmental exposures including outdoor hobbies and exposures to animals, and sexual and recreational drug use history. This may help determine risk of reactivation of latent infection posttransplant [1,2,3 && ]. Active or uncontrolled infection in the recipient should delay transplant until infection resolves or is controlled [3 optimal time for providers to counsel patient and their family on vaccination and infection prevention before and after transplant [5].…”

“…Infection risk, and its contribution to clinical outcomes, is related to epidemiological exposures for the SOT candidate and donor and immunosuppression of the SOT recipient [1]. This review will focus on SOT candidate screening and important donor screening recommendations (further donor screening details are outlined elsewhere [2]). As vaccinations are a cornerstone of preventing infections in SOT patients, this review will discuss adult and pediatric vaccine optimization in the pretransplant and posttransplant period as well as posttransplant chemoprophylaxis to prevent nonvaccine-preventable infections.…”