Influenzavaccinatie bij immuungecompromitteerde patiënten

• Immunocompromised patients are extra sensitive to serious influenza infections.
• A compromised immune system in these patients also results in an impaired immune response following influenza vaccination.
• Recently, many vaccination studies have been carried out in patients with HIV, patients treated with rituximab or a tumour necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha blocker, patients with malignancies, and in patients following allogeneic stem cell transplantation for haematological malignancy or following solid organ transplantation.
• In most patient groups influenza vaccination induces a sufficiently high antibody titre.
• Patients using rituximab, patients who recently received a stem cell transplantation and patients treated with active cytotoxic chemotherapy may show an insufficient antibody response following influenza vaccination.
• In general, adapted vaccination strategies such as repeated administration of a vaccine or administering a higher dose of vaccine antigen results in a better immune response following vaccination.
• Therefore, influenza vaccination is recommended for all patient groups.

Conflict of interest: none declared. Financial support: none declared.