1. Zoster prophylaxis after allogeneic hematopoietic cell transplantation using acyclovir/valacyclovir followed by vaccination
- Author
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Jamani, Kareem, MacDonald, Judy, Lavoie, Martin, Williamson, Tyler S., Brown, Christopher B., Chaudhry, Ahsan, Jimenez-Zepeda, Victor H., Duggan, Peter, Tay, Jason, Stewart, Douglas, Daly, Andrew, and Storek, Jan
- Subjects
Transplantation ,integumentary system ,viruses ,virus diseases ,biochemical phenomena, metabolism, and nutrition ,eye diseases - Abstract
Varicella zoster virus (VZV) disease (usually cutaneous zoster) occurs frequently after hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT), and postherpetic neuralgia (PHN) results in poor quality of life. The optimal prophylaxis of VZV disease/PHN has not been established. At our center, before 2008, VZV prophylaxis consisted of ∼1 year of post-HCT acyclovir/valacyclovir ("old strategy"), whereas post-2008 prophylaxis consisted of 2 years of acyclovir/valacyclovir followed by immunization using varicella vaccine ("new strategy"). We performed a retrospective study comparing the cumulative incidence of VZV disease and PHN among patients who completed the old strategy (n = 153) vs the new strategy (n = 125). Patients who completed the old strategy had a significantly higher cumulative incidence of VZV disease (33% vs 17% at 5 years
- Published
- 2016