[Nancy Shamanna]

Re: Vaccination - childhood vaccine

by Nancy Shamanna on Mon Oct 01, 2012 11:40 am

Hi Indymike..In my case, two years after asct, and having been on acyclovir for two years, I got my 'live' vaccines, as per recommendations from the transplant unit here. I did get the 'chickenpox' vaccine, which is another herpes virus type vaccine, but not shingles vaccine. Thus the nurse and I hoped that that vaccine might protect me against shingles also. This is nothing if not a bit confusing, but I went thru the transplant clinic and public health clinic's program for re-vaccination. I do think that the protocol differs from one jurisdiction to the other, but I appreciated hearing Dr. Kyle's recommendations too...he is from the Mayo Cinic, Rochester, and has authored many books and papers on Myeloma.

[genk]

Re Boot?

by genk on Thu Oct 04, 2012 6:33 pm

I have asked this question many times to this point I have found no one that can answer me. I had my first stem cell transplant on May 2nd. Will I now need to be immunized for small pox, TB, whooping cough, etc or my old ones are still with me? Can anyone tell me if I need to address this?

[Dr. Ken Shain]

Re: Re Boot?

by Dr. Ken Shain on Fri Oct 05, 2012 8:45 am

At Moffitt our post- HDM-ASCT standard operating procedure is to revacccinate - but not smallpox. My recommendation is yes. Revaccinating post-HDM-ASCT is recommended based on data following allo (donor) transplants extrapolated to the ASCT setting -- and are part of the guidelines set forth by the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplant and other groups. The reality is the data in all settings are not complete. However, this is a strong recommendation. The full text of the recommendations can be viewed here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3103296/#S175title

See, in particular, the section titled "Vaccination of Hematopoietic Cell Transplant Recipients". The link above should go directly to that section, but it may be in the lower part of your screen after the full text of the article has loaded.

[Nancy Shamanna]

Re: Vaccination - childhood vaccine

by Nancy Shamanna on Fri Oct 05, 2012 6:45 pm

Thanks Dr. Shain, for posting the vaccination protocols, as set out by the Amer. Soc. of Blood and Marrow Transplant group. This answers a lot of questions for us, and yet as you say, is still not definitive. Interesting that the protocols were derived from the 'ALLO' transplants! I guess that all transplant patients should take this info under advisement. About smallpox, I asked our public health nurse about it, and it has been practically eliminated in the world now, and so is not offered any more here.

[PaulR]

Re: Vaccination - childhood vaccine

by PaulR on Mon Oct 22, 2012 4:35 pm

I had ASCT in march2012, and since I want to return to international travel, Asia, EU, etc. I have asked my local oncologist & Dr. at UCSF about vaccinations post ASCT. They have OK'd the basic set including flu, PCV-pneumococcal conjugate & dT-Tetanus diphtheria no earlier than 6 months post ASCT. Others are also recommended in a chart found at http://www.uptodate.com. FYI, multiple doses for some inactive (not live) vaccines are recommended.

Im curious to hear from others who are post ASCT who do international travel? Issues? Best practices?

[scott011]

Re: Vaccination - childhood vaccine

by scott011 on Tue Oct 23, 2012 11:20 am

Hello Paul, my wife is 15 months post-transplant and is doing very well. We just returned from a three week trip to asia, with the majority of the time spent in China. Obviously, there are sanitation issues when traveling to some countries, but we decided to take what precautions that we can, but continue to travel. She got some of the recommended vaccines, but not all of them.We drank bottled water only, washed hands and used sanitizer often and she was more careful about food then I was.She avoided the "street food" that I tend to enjoy. I would also recommend getting proper rest and staying in a "western-style hotel".I would like to continue traveling as long as we are physically able