Prevention of CMV infection after BMT in high-risk patients using CMV hyperimmune globulin

Prophylactic administration of an intravenous cytomegalovirus hyperimmune globulin in bone marrow transplant recipients provided protection against primary as well as reactivated CMV infection in patients considered to be at high risk for cytomegalovirus infections. Forty-one patients were divided in six subgroups according to factors considered to increase the incidence and severity of CMV infections following bone marrow transplantation. All of these patients received blood products from donors not screened for active or latent CMV infections. In spite of this, patients undergoing intensified conditioning therapy or mismatch transplantation, as well as those transplanted in relapse of their leukemia and even patients receiving granulocyte transfusions from donors unscreened for CMV serostatus, were found not to develop primary or secondary CMV infections. Only in the group of patients older than 35 years and among those suffering from severe GVHD six patients were found to have CMV infections, only two a symptomatic form. Intravenous administration of CMV hyperimmune globulin effectively protected even patients at high risk for CMV infection against severe complications of primary infection or reactivation of this virus.