Andrisani G, Armuzzi A, Marzo M, Felice C, Pugliese D, Papa A, Guidi L. What is the best way to manage screening for infections and vaccination of inflammatory bowel disease patients? World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther 2016; 7(3): 387-396 [PMID: 27602239 DOI: 10.4292/wjgpt.v7.i3.387]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Luisa Guidi, MD, PhD, IBD Unit, Complesso Integrato Columbus, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via Moscati 31, 00168 Rome, Italy. guidi@rm.unicatt.it
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Author contributions: Andrisani G and Guidi L contributed to literature search and wrote the manuscript; Armuzzi A and Marzo M contributed to literature review and proof reading of the manuscript; Felice C, Pugliese D and Papa A performed proof reading of the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All authors declare no conflict-of-interest related to this paper.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Luisa Guidi, MD, PhD, IBD Unit, Complesso Integrato Columbus, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, via Moscati 31, 00168 Rome, Italy. guidi@rm.unicatt.it
Telephone: +39-6-3503310 Fax: +39-6-3054641
Received: May 14, 2015 Peer-review started: May 15, 2015 First decision: September 8, 2015 Revised: April 25, 2016 Accepted: June 14, 2016 Article in press: June 16, 2016 Published online: August 6, 2016 Processing time: 445 Days and 6.4 Hours
Abstract
The use of biological agents and immunomodulators for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk of opportunistic infections, in particular of viral or bacterial etiology. Despite the existence of international guidelines, many gastroenterologists have not adopted routine screening and vaccination in those patients with IBD, which are candidate for biologic therapy. Available strategies to screen, diagnose and prevent bacterial and viral infections in patients with IBD prior to start biological therapy are discussed in this review.
Core tip: The increasing use of biologics as a mainstay of therapy in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is associated with an increased risk for a variety of infections, many of which are preventable by prior screening and vaccination. While immunocompetent IBD patients can be vaccinated using standard vaccination schedule, special guidelines need to be followed for IBD patients getting immunosuppressive therapy (IST). This article provides a review of the issues surrounding immunizations in the IBD patient and a practical guide for clinicians regarding the appropriate screening for infections and vaccinations to administer both before and during IST.
