Immunosupression: the need and opportunity to protect patients against infections by vaccination

Due to huge number of diseases and/or necessary of their treatment, immunosuppression leads to increased susceptibility to infections, their more severe course, more frequent disability and mortality. Protecting these patients from vaccine preventable infections reduces these risks. The review discusses the definitions of “target groups” and “risk groups” used today. Many examples show the size of damage caused by infections in risk groups (patients with immunosuppression) in comparison with damage in the general population, the possibilities and evaluation of the effectiveness of vaccination of risk groups. According to the results of various studies, the features of vaccination schemes of risk groups were considered in comparison with vaccination of target groups in the general population.