New influenza A (H1N1/09) in three renal transplant patients

The pandemic new influenza A (H1N1/09) virus may be especially threatening for immunosuppressed renal transplant patients as they are at increased risk for complications, prolonged infection and mortality. This is the first case report of renal transplant patients with PCR-confirmed H1N1 respiratory tract infection. They showed a surprisingly mild clinical course despite respiratory fungal or viral co-infections in two cases. Treatment with oseltamivir in standard dosage was immediately started after diagnosis and proved to be rapidly beneficial with respect to clinical outcome and virus shedding without deteriorating renal transplant function.