The COVID‐19 pandemic has had a major impact on kidney transplantation and on patients with end‐stage kidney disease. Transplantation activity has been substantially reduced, and kidney transplant recipients have suffered increased mortality. The introduction of vaccines against SARS‐CoV‐2 has offered considerable hope that it may be possible to protect patients from the risks associated with SARS‐CoV‐2 infection, and that more patients may once again have access to kidney transplantation.

Report from the 43rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood & Marrow Transplantation 2017, 26-29 March 2017, Marseille, France Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation is a potentially life-threatening complication in immunocompromised recipients of hematopoietic cell transplantation (HCT). Its management was therefore a key topic for over 5000 delegates from 85 countries attending the 43rd Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood & Marrow Transplantation 2017. The currently available anti-CMV armamentarium is seldom used to prevent CMV reactivation due to the associated myelosuppression and renal toxicity. Following HCT, CMV reactivation is generally managed pre-emptively using sensitive assays for early detection of viral DNA (and to a lesser extent antigenemia) and, where necessary, treatment with antiviral drugs with the aim of preventing CMV disease. However, any degree of CMV reactivation increases the risk of mortality, and novel antiviral therapies may offer the possibility of prophylaxis to prevent CMV reactivation and improve survival after HCT.

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41st Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT 2015), Istanbul, Turkey, 22-25 March 2015 The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation (EBMT) is the leading scientific society for professionals involved in hematopoietic stem-cell transplantation (HSCT) and represents 563 transplant centers from 57 countries within and outside Europe. Each year, the EBMT Annual Meeting brings together over 4,500 scientists, physicians, nurses, biologists, technicians and patients to discuss scientific data that build on past achievements in the field of HSCT. The procedure offers the chance of long-term remission of hematological and lymphoid cancers, but patients are at increased risk of serious infections, especially after allogeneic HSCT. These infections include the invasive fungal infections that were among the important topics discussed during EBMT 2015.

The European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation was established in 1974 to enable scientists and physicians involved in clinical bone marrow transplantation to share their experience and develop cooperative studies. The organization celebrated its 40th anniversary with a meeting that considered hematopoietic stem cell transplantation not as a standalone procedure, but as part of a complex therapeutic program managed by a multidisciplinary professional team. The role of antifungal prophylaxis, emerging resistance in Aspergillus, the management of mucormycosis and new guidelines on antifungal therapy were among the topics discussed by the physicians, nurses, allied health professionals and scientists attending the 40th Annual Meeting of the European Society for Blood and Marrow Transplantation.