Travel After Transplant: Demographics, Travel Trends, and Vaccination Practices of US Immunocompromised Travelers.

BACKGROUND

International travel by solid organ and stem cell transplant recipients is increasing. Their level of immunocompromise impacts the risk of illness related to travel and adds complexity to pretravel health preparation. We evaluated the demographics, travel trends, and vaccination practices at pretravel health consultations of immunocompromised posttransplant travelers (IPTTs) seen at 17 US clinical sites from January 2009 to December 2023.

METHODS

Travelers and providers completed an online structured questionnaire during the pretravel health consultation. For this analysis, we compared the demographics, travel itinerary, and vaccination practice of IPTTs with frequency-matched control travelers, using descriptive statistics.

RESULTS

A total of 317 IPTTs and 3173 control travelers were included. Of the 317 IPTTs, 143 (45%) were women; the median age was 54 y (42-63). Visiting friends or relatives (16.4% versus 6.2%, P  < 0.001) and cruise ship travel (12.9% versus 8.0%, P  = 0.003) were more frequently reported among individuals with IPTTs than among controls. No IPTT received the measles-mumps-rubella vaccine; 1 IPTT received the yellow fever vaccine.

CONCLUSIONS

This is the largest described cohort of IPTTs. Understanding travel patterns and vaccination practices in this higher-risk population is crucial to improving pretravel preparation and outcomes.