Feldman AG, et al. - In this multicenter cohort study of 6,980 pediatric solid organ transplant recipients at a Pediatric Health Information System center, researchers assessed in pediatric solid organ transplant recipients the number of hospitalizations for vaccine-preventable infections in the first five years after transplantation and determined the associated morbidity, mortality and cost. Findings revealed that hospitalization for vaccine-preventable infections occurred in more than 15% of solid organ transplant recipients up to 87 times higher in the first 5 years after transplantation than in the general population. Significant morbidity, mortality and the cost of these infections demonstrated the importance of immunizing all candidates and recipients for transplantation. The case fatality rate for all infections was 1.7%. They observed that transplant hospitalizations complicated by vaccine-preventable infections cost $120,498 more than transplant hospitalizations that are not complicated by vaccine-preventable infections. Overall, they concluded that vaccine-preventable infections are common after pediatric transplant. Therefore, maximum efforts must be made to ensure that transplant candidates and recipients are fully immunized.