5/1/03- 78-year-old Frank McJannet says he was very
surprised when a bout of pneumonia landed him in the
hospital last fall. Surprised, because he had gotten the
pneumonia vaccine.
Frank McJannet, Seattle: "You get the shot just so you
don't get the problem with the disease,
whatever it happens to be. And this one didn't work
out."
Many seniors get the pneumonia vaccine when they get
their flu shots. But group health researchers just
concluded a major government study of 47,000 people over
65. They found those who expected protection against
pneumonia from the vaccine, didn't get it.
Dr. Lisa Jackson, MD, Group Health: "We looked at all
pneumonia in this population, and didn't find any
difference between person's who had the vaccine and
those that hadn't."
Infants fared much better. A second study shows a
different pneumonia vaccine, recently available to
babies, cut the rate of pneumonia in toddlers by almost
70%. But this vaccine hasn't been shown to be effective
for older kids or adults. So what should seniors do who
want to protect against pneumonia? Vaccine researcher
Dr. Lisa Jackson says they still need to roll up their
sleeves for the pneumonia vaccine. Research shows it
does protect against a rare but nasty bloodstream
infection.
