Title | Characteristics of respiratory virus infections in autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation patients, a prospective study, Bern, Switzerland, 2015-2017. | ||
Author | Moret, Fabienne; Marschall, Jonas; Atkinson, Andrew; Farag, Sarah; Zimmerli, Stefan; Pabst, Thomas; Sommerstein, Rami | ||
Journal | Infect Dis (Lond) | Publication Year/Month | 2021-Apr |
PMID | 33475447 | PMCID | -N/A- |
Affiliation + expend | 1.Department of Infectious Diseases, Bern University Hospital, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland. |
BACKGROUND: The epidemiology of respiratory virus infections (RVI) in patients undergoing autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) is not well described. METHODS: Our goal was to describe the epidemiology of respiratory virus infections (RVI) in patients undergoing autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation (auto-SCT) in a single tertiary centre observation study during two respiratory virus seasons (2015-2017). All symptomatic auto-SCT patients were tested for RVI by nasopharyngeal swab. RESULTS: 156 transplantation episodes were included, 69% were male and, the median age was 57 years. We detected 19 RVIs in 156 transplantation episodes (12%). The median time to RVI after hospitalization was 13 days [IQR 7-13] and 15/19 (79%) had a possible nosocomial origin (occurrence >/= 5 days after admission). The nosocomial infections included 5/15 (33%) \'severe\' RVIs (3 influenza viruses, 1 parainfluenza virus, and 1 adenovirus) as well as 10/15 (66%) non-severe virus infections (including human rhinovirus and human coronavirus). CONCLUSION: In approximately 10% of auto-SCT transplantation episodes, an RVI with likely nosocomial origin was detected and included \'severe viruses\' such as influenza. Our study suggests that infection prevention measures in auto-SCT patients can be improved. ABBREVIATIONS: AdV: adenovirus; ALL: acute lymphatic leukaemia; AML: acute myeloid leukaemia; auto-SCT: autologous haematopoietic stem cell transplantation; hCoV: human coronavirus; HD: Hodgkin\'s disease; hMPV: human metapneumovirus; HRV: human rhinovirus; HSCT: allogeneic haematopoietic stem cell transplantation; IQR: interquartile range; GCT: germ cell tumour; MM: multiple myeloma; NHL: non-Hodgkin lymphoma; PIV: parainfluenza virus; RSV: respiratory syncytial virus.