Recomendations of vaccination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)

The concept of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) covers three entities: ulcerative colitis (DC), Crohn's disease (CD) and indeterminate colitis (IC). These diseases have in common a chronic and relapsing course, alternating periods marked by inflammatory activity with other quiescent periods, in which the patient is asymptomatic. For many years treatment of the disease, especially in acute phases, was based on the use of corticoids. However, in recent decades we have witnessed significant advances from the therapeutic point of view. It is estimated that during the course of the disease's evolution 80% of patients will need corticoids, 40% immunomodulators (IMM), and as many as 20% will require a biological medicine to control their disease. While all of this is accompanied by an improvement in quality of life, less hospital admissions or surgical interventions, their use also involves an increase in the risk of suffering infections, either due to germs normally found in the community or opportunistic infections. Moreover, infections are a cause of morbidity and mortality associated with IBD and some of them can be prevented with vaccinations, hence the importance that vaccination programs are acquiring in this groups of patients. We present a review of the relevant literature and propose a vaccination protocol for patients diagnosed with IBD.