Primary care physicians will rarely be prescribing or monitoring the use of immunomodulators or biologicals. Still the article below is an excellent resource for primary care physicians including urgent care and emergency physicians.
Below is the brief outline from and of Resource (1), Second European evidence-based consensus on the prevention, diagnosis and management of opportunistic infections in inflammatory bowel disease [link is to the full text HTML], below:
Outline
- Keywords
- 1. Introduction
- 2. Definitions and risk factors
- 3. Hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
- 4. Herpesviruses (HSV, VZV, EBV, CMV), human papilloma virus, and influenza virus
- 5. Parasitic and fungal infection
- 6. Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection
- 7. Bacterial infection
- 8. Special situations
- 9. Pediatrics
- 10. Vaccination and safety screening before starting an immunosuppressive treatment
- Conflict of interest statement
- Acknowledgement
- References
Resources:
(1) Second European evidence-based consensus on the prevention, diagnosis and management of opportunistic infections in inflammatory bowel disease [PubMed Abstract] [Full Text HTML] [Full Text PDF]. J Crohns Colitis. 2014 Jun;8(6):443-68. doi: 10.1016/j.crohns.2013.12.013. Epub 2014 Mar 6.
(2) Inflammatory Bowel Disease: Checklist for the prevention of infections [Full Text PDF].
To be kept in each patient’s file.
The objective of this check-list is to provide each gastroenterologist to be considered according to the ECCO guidelines [Resource (1) above] before and during immunomodulary treatment. Ideally, the check list should be completed at the patient’s first visit, or at least before the initiation of immunomodulary treatment. It can be updated at subsequent visits.
