Role of viral infections in immunosuppressed patients

Being a solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient as well as receiving chemotherapy for a malignant hematological disease clearly predispose the subject to a variety of viral infections, both common and opportunistic diseases. The patient may have acquired these infections from the community as well as from the donor organ (donor-derived infections) and/or from reactivation of an endogenous latent virus. Herpes viruses and especially the cytomegalovirus and Epstein-Barr virus are among the most common of the opportunistic viral pathogens affecting these patients, in addition to respiratory viruses. Treatment consists in antiviral drug therapies combined with the reduction in the degree of the induced immunosuppression. A review of the literature has been performed in order to update the epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical manifestations and therapeutic approach of the viral infections in these immunocompromised patients.