| Summary: | Organ transplantation has become one of the
most important areas of medical research and, at present,
is still the only therapeutical tool for several
diseases. However, there are a number of factors
related to transplantation, like immunosuppression
and prolonged neutropenia that affect the incidence
of infection. These infections are somehow peculiar
to trasplant recipients. In fact, there are infectious
diseases that only occur in immunodepression situations
and, moreover, clinical expression of these
infectious diseases can be quite different from that in
immunocompetent patients. Besides these aspects,
some infections, due to the high prevalence
described, must be considered for prevention strategies
because they continue to be a principal cause of
morbidity and mortality, either due to direct effects
or to their implication in the pathogenesis of rejection.
These strategies commence before trasplantation
by active immunization through vaccine administration
to the patient and to people in the milieu
and continue after trasplantation with prophylaxis or
pre-emptive therapy. The importance of infectious
diseases in the evolution and prognosis of trasplant
recipients gives a special meaning to the understanding
of associated infections, their clinical expression
and ways of prevention and treatment.
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