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Old Wed Sep 20, 2006, 03:00 AM
Ruth Cuadra Ruth Cuadra is offline
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Los Angeles, California
Posts: 616
My experience with post-BMT vaccinations

Gina,

I don't know what the most current medical thinking is about when it is appropriate to re-vaccinate a BMT patient. The considerations may be different for adults and children, but I'm sure the patient has to be off all immunosuppressants before proceeding with immunizations.

Here's what happened to me:

My transplant was in October 1998. Because of GVH issues, I was on immunosuppressants until June 2003. As soon as all the immunosuppressants were stopped, my doctor referred me for immunizations. I got them in 3 batches over the next year: tetanus, Hib (influenza), hepatitis B, pneumovax, and polio.

I had a flu-like symptoms after the first batch, which doctors thought was probably a reaction to the pneumovax (pneumonia vaccine), so I didn't repeat that one. Also, I was found to have sufficient polio antibodies after the first shot, so it was not repeated either.

There are reports from parents of children diagnosed with aplastic anemia that seemed to have followed closely after the administration of the hepatisis B vaccine, but there is little, if any, scientific evidence of a relationship between the two. This is a hot topic among parents with experiences in this area and I hope some will share them in the AA forum.

Regards,
Ruth
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Diagnosed AA 10/96, MDS/RA 6/98, MUD/BMT 10/6/98
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