Strength of Recommendation and Quality of Evidence
|SR – Strong||Clear desirable or undesirable effects|
|WR – Weak||Desirable and undesirable effects closely balanced or uncertain|
|Quality of Evidence|
|H – High||Consistent evidence from well-performed RCTs or exceptionally strong evidence from unbiased observational studies|
|M – Moderate||Evidence from RCTs with important limitations or moderately strong evidence from unbiased observational studies|
|L – Low||Evidence for ≥1 critical outcome from observational studies, from RCTs with serious flaws or from indirect evidence|
|VL – Very low||Evidence for ≥1 critical outcome from unsystematic clinical observations or very indirect evidence|
|SR-H||Applies to most patients in most circumstances||Further research is unlikely to change estimate|
|SR-M||Further research may change estimate|
|SR-VL||Estimate of effect for at least one critical outcome is very uncertain|
|WR-H||The best action may differ depending on circumstances or patients or societal values||Further research is unlikely to change estimate|
|WR-M||Alternative approaches likely to be better for some patients under some circumstances||Further research may change estimate|
|WR-L||Other alternatives may be equally reasonable|
|WR-VL||Any estimate of effect, for at least one critical outcome, is very uncertain|
|RCTs, randomized controlled trials.|
For the complete Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) Strength of Recommendations and Quality of the Evidence Table, visit the IDSA website: http://www.idsociety.org/Guidelines_Other/.
Some recommendations in this guideline have not been addressed by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), or deviate from their recommendations, and are marked by an asterisk (*).
- Impaired host defenses predispose patients to an increased rate or severity of vaccine-preventable infection.
- Such patients may also have greater exposure to pathogens due to frequent contact with medical environments.
- Data on safety, immunogenicity, and efficacy/effectiveness of vaccines for immunocompromised populations are limited.
- Immune system defects vary among and within categories of patients with immunodeficiency (eg, degree of immunodeficiency, nutritional status, immunosuppressive regimen), which may limit the generalizability of study findings.
- Inactivated vaccines can be administered to most immunocompromised patients, and live vaccines are contraindicated for most immunocompromised patients, with some important exceptions.
Responsibility for Vaccination
- Specialists caring for immunocompromised patients share responsibility with the primary care provider for ensuring that appropriate vaccinations are administered to immunocompromised patients (SR-L).*
- Specialists caring for immunocompromised patients share responsibility with the primary care provider for recommending appropriate vaccinations for household members of immunocompromised patients (SR-VL).*
Timing of Vaccination
- Vaccines should be administered prior to planned immunosuppression if feasible (SR-M).
- Live vaccines should be administered ≥4 weeks prior to immunosuppression (SR-L) and should be avoided within 2 weeks of initiation of immunosuppression (SR-L).*
- Inactivated vaccines should be administered ≥2 weeks prior to immunosuppression (SR-M).
- Clinicians may administer inactivated vaccines indicated for travel based on the CDC annual schedule for immunocompetent adults and children (SR-L).
- Yellow fever vaccine generally should NOT be administered to immunocompromised persons (SR-M). If travel to an endemic area cannot be avoided, vaccination can be considered in certain adults with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection who are minimally immunocompromised:
- a. Asymptomatic HIV-infected adults with CD4 T-cell lymphocyte counts of ≥200 cells/mm3 (WR-L)
- b. Asymptomatic HIV-infected children age 9 months through 5 years with CD4 T-cell lymphocyte percentages of ≥15% (WR-VL)
- With certain exceptions (eg, yellow fever vaccine and MMR in certain HIV-infected patients [see recommendation 13 and HIV section] and MMR in certain HSCT patients [see HSCT section]), live vaccines should NOT be given to immunocompromised persons (SR-L).
Table 1. Safety of Administration of Live Vaccines to Contacts of Immunocompromised Persons
|Live Vaccine||Shedding of Agent? (Site)||Transmissibility From Vaccinated Immunocompetent Person?||Recommendation for Administering Vaccines (When Indicated) to Healthy Immunocompetent Contacts of Immunocompromised Patients|
|Influenza, live, attenuated nasal||Yes (nasal secretions)||Rare (from 1 vaccinated toddler)||Administer (SR-L); vaccinated persons to avoid close contact with persons with HSCT or SCID for 7 d (WR-VL)|
(nasopharynx, in low titer; breast milk)
|No, except mother-to-infant transmission of rubella vaccine virus via breast milk||Administer (SR-M)|
|Poliovirus, oral||Yes (stool)||Yes, with rare cases of vaccine-associated paralytic poliomyelitis||Do NOT administer (SR-H)|
|Rotavirus, oral||Yes (stool)||Yes, but no reported cases of symptomatic infection in contacts||Administer (SR-L)|
|Typhoid, oral||No||No||Administer (SR-L)|
|Varicella||Yes (skin lesions)||Rare, limited to vaccinees with skin lesions||Administer (SR-M); if skin lesions develop, avoid close contact with immunocompromised persons|
|Yellow fever||No, except possibly shed in breast milk||Yes (at least 3 cases of encephalitis in infants exposed to the vaccine via nursing)||Administer (SR-M) except to women who are nursing|
|Zoster||Yes (rarely recovered from injection-site vesicles)||Not reported||Administer to age ≥60 y (SR-M); if skin lesions develop, avoid close contact with immunocompromised persons|