Critical appraisal of immunization strategies for prevention of infection in the compromised host

Chemotherapy and/or bone marrow transplantation clearly places individuals at increased risk for many vaccine-preventable diseases. Both active and passive immunization strategies have been considered for protecting immunocompromised patients. Many compromised hosts are capable of mounting protective responses to some protein toxoids, polysaccharide-conjugate, and viral vaccines. Effective, safe, and practical dosage schedules are evolving for individual vaccines and specific patient populations.