Tuberculosis in stem cell transplant patients

Abstract

Tuberculosis (TB) is an increasing health problem, and patients undergoing stem cell transplantation (SCT) are at high risk of acquiring TB. Following a review of the medical literature, this article reports the current situation of TB in SCT patients. A PubMed search was undertaken using the keywords 'tuberculosis', 'stem cell transplantation' and 'bone marrow transplantation', and cases with meaningful data for analysis were included. The medical literature contains relatively few data on TB and SCT. Although there is a risk of TB in allogeneic SCT patients, this is less than in solid organ transplant patients, and the risk in autologous SCT patients is similar to the risk in the general population. The incidence of TB in SCT patients is proportional to the incidence of TB in the general population. Evidence favouring TB prophylaxis is not well established. While allogeneic transplantation carries a risk of TB, this is not true for autologous transplantation. Prophylaxis can only be an option for selected patients or countries with high rates of TB.