Impact of Pretransplant Infectious Diseases Wellness Visit on Vaccine Uptake in Solid Organ Transplant Candidates

ABSTRACT

Purpose: Vaccination rates in solid organ transplant candidates (SOTc) remains suboptimal. We report the effect of a dedicated Infectious Disease Pre-transplant (IDPT) clinic visit on vaccine uptake in SOTc. Method(s) We evaluated all SOTc referred to the IDPT from January 2020 to February 2021 at Henry Ford Transplant Institute in Detroit, MI. Patients were followed up until October 2021. Sociodemographic data, comorbidities, vaccination status for influenza, pneumococcus, hepatitis B, Tdap, zoster and COVID-19 were determined from electronic medical records and the Michigan Care Improvement Registry that includes vaccination records. Vaccine uptake at baseline and 3 and 6 months after IDPT visit were evaluated. Result(s) A total of 183 SOTc were evaluated in IDPT. Median age was 57 years, mean Charlson Comorbidity Index was 4.1. Other characteristics are summarized (Table 1). Vaccine uptake improved post IDPT for all vaccines (Table 2), most notably for hepatitis B (53.4%), zoster (40.4%) and pneumococcal vaccine (33.4%). COVID vaccine uptake post visit was 80.3%. Conclusion(s) IDPT clinic visits steadily improved vaccine uptake in SOTc at our institution. Implementation of an Infectious Diseases visit as a requirement for all SOTc can provide opportunities to optimize vaccine completion before transplantation.