Vaccinating HIV patients: focus on human papillomavirus and herpes zoster vaccines

Vaccination has been one of our most powerful tools to decrease morbidity and mortality from infectious diseases in the last century. It is critical to understand the evolving safety and efficacy data for vaccines in HIV-infected individuals as the number of people living with HIV in the United States and globally continues to increase. The quadrivalent human papillomavirus vaccine and the herpes zoster vaccine are newly licensed in the general population, and several studies have recently been published on the safety and efficacy of these vaccines in HIV populations. This manuscript reviews recent data for the vaccines most commonly administered in HIV patients and incorporates these data into our body of knowledge about the safety and efficacy of vaccines in this population. In addition, patient factors that predict response for each vaccine are discussed. Given the great burden of human papillomavirus and herpes zoster in HIV patients, we discuss the benefits and the challenges of vaccinating HIV patients with the human papillomavirus and herpes zoster vaccines. This review provides information that clinicians need to make real-time decisions in the absence of large-scale trials in the HIV population.