An Unexpectedly High Incidence of Invasive Fungal Diseases in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Taking Belatacept for Organ Rejection Prophylaxis: A Single-Center Retrospective Cohort Study

Elizabeth Bell; Jennifer Pisano; Manasa Brown; Daniel Friedman

doi:10.1093/ofid/ofae158

An Unexpectedly High Incidence of Invasive Fungal Diseases in Solid Organ Transplant Recipients Taking Belatacept for Organ Rejection Prophylaxis: A Single-Center Retrospective Cohort Study

Open Forum Infect Dis. 2024 Mar 16;11(6):ofae158. doi: 10.1093/ofid/ofae158. eCollection 2024 Jun.

Authors

Elizabeth Bell¹, Jennifer Pisano¹, Manasa Brown², Daniel Friedman¹

Affiliations

¹ Section of Infectious Diseases and Global Health, University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.
² Department of Internal Medicine, University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Abstract

Among solid organ transplant recipients taking belatacept, 15% developed invasive fungal diseases. The most common invasive fungal diseases were aspergillosis (56%) and candidiasis (22%). The infected cohort was more likely to receive basiliximab, undergo lung transplantation, or identify as White. Higher rates of aspergillosis were seen in this lung cohort than previously reported.