A lifelong annual date with the mercury in the flu vaccine (note: mercury and alzheimer’s have been linked), they should be saying. – SM

 

Immunization Newsbriefs © Copyright Information Inc., Bethesda, MD. Brought to you by the National Network for Immunization Information (NNii). Visit NNii’s new website at http://www.immunizationinfo.org.

 

February 4, 2002

 

“Safe Vaccines Are a Lifelong Annual Date; Seniors Sometimes

Neglect Their Shots”

 

Toronto Sun (www.fyitoronto.com/torsun.shtml) (02/03/02) P. 44

 

It is just as important for people over 50 years of age to get their annual immunizations as it is for children, according to the Canadian Immunization Guide for doctors and public health nurses.  Dr. Victor Marchessault, a 72-year-old infectious disease specialist, says that although immunization effectiveness decreases with an aging immune system, vaccines are still 60 percent effective in senior citizens—which is still better than no protection all.  According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, up to 70,000 American adults die from vaccine-preventable diseases or complications as a result of not becoming immunized.  Marchessault notes that many older Canadians tend to forget they need to be re-immunized against tetanus and diphtheria.  “This is now seen as part of routine care—when adults go to see their family physicians for their annual checkups, the physicians are supposed to ask them when they had their last diphtheria and tetanus shot,” he says.  But flu and pneumonia are the most alarming dangers for seniors, asserts Phyllis Stoffman, author of “The Family Guide to Preventing and Treating 100 Infectious Illnesses.”  Stoffman notes that only 20 percent of adults who need the flu vaccine and only about 10 percent of  those who need the pneumococcal vaccine are getting those shots.  Marchessault, a physician with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario and a member of Canada’s National Advisory Committee on Immunization, also cautions that the most underestimated vaccine is the one against Streptococcus pneumoniae, which accounts for about 80,000 cases of pneumonia every year in Canada, as well as blood infections and other conditions.

 

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.