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World Immunization Week: Importance Of Adult Vaccines To Safeguard Yourself Against Infectious Diseases

World Immunization Week is observed every year from April 24 to 30 to encourage the use of immunizations to protect people of all ages against disease. Read on to know the importance of vaccination.

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Written By: Editorial Team | Published : April 28, 2022 8:20 PM IST

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The goal of World Immunization Week, which runs from April 24 to 30, is to encourage the use of immunizations to protect people of all ages against disease. Every year, vaccination saves millions of lives and is largely regarded as one of the most successful and cost-effective health treatments in the world.

Vaccination is advised throughout one's life to protect against infectious diseases and their complications. It is critical for preventing mortality since infections account for more than a quarter of all fatalities. Vaccines for adults are suggested for a variety of reasons like to lessen the health implications of vaccine-preventable diseases in adults, significant improvements, and increases in adult immunization are required. In India, incomplete and inadequate immunization against various infectious illnesses results in significant and avoidable hospitalization and treatment costs. The Indian government and the World Health Organization (WHO) have made childhood vaccination a priority, but adult immunization is still a low priority, despite being the most unappreciated element of Indian health care.

Reasons Why You Should Be Vaccinated

Adults have been targeted for tetanus, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, measles, mumps, rubella, meningococcus, pneumococcus, typhoid, influenza, and chickenpox, among other infectious diseases. Nonetheless, communicable diseases cause a significant burden of morbidity, mortality, and disability in developing countries like India. Although adults have a lower risk of infection, the global spread of HIV and the re-emergence of diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis have worsened already precarious healthcare circumstances. Because of urbanization, globalization, and other factors, the adult population's chances of contracting infectious diseases have grown.

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The most compelling reasons to be vaccinated are to protect yourself and those around you:

  • Vaccine-preventable illnesses are still present. Viruses and bacteria that cause illness and death still exist and can be transmitted to those who have not been vaccinated. While many diseases are uncommon in general, worldwide travel makes disease transmission easy. If un-immunized, one leaves themselves vulnerable to infections like shingles, pneumococcal disease, flu, HPV, and hepatitis B, which are also prominent causes of cancer.
  • Vaccines, along with eating nutritious foods, exercising, and seeing a doctor on a regular basis, are critical for remaining healthy. Vaccines are one of the most practical and safest methods of disease prevention and do not cause the diseases that they are supposed to prevent. Some of the immunizations are also live vaccines. However, in the immune-competent population, they rarely cause disease.
  • Young and healthy people can also get terribly ill. Although vaccine-preventable diseases can strike anyone, serious infections and their effects are more common among newborns and the elderly.
  • Vaccinating your children as soon as they are born, usually during the first few weeks, helps to safeguard them, constructing a protective cocoon around the infant. Pregnant women (ideally between 27- and 36-weeks' gestation) and adults in proximity with small children, who also have pertussis or whooping cough should get Tetanus toxoid and the flu vaccines.
  • People suffering from asthma, heart disease, lung disease, diabetes, or other chronic condition may have weakened immune systems. The pneumococcal vaccine protects against serious infections caused by Streptococcus pneumonia, such as pneumonia, meningitis, and blood infections.
  • If you are 6 months of age or older, the CDC advises that you get a flu vaccine every year unless you have a medical reason not to. Each year's flu vaccine is designed to protect against the three or four influenza viruses most likely to circulate throughout the coming flu season.

Takeaway

In conclusion, India must address the issue of adult immunization right away. Although many questions surrounding the efficacy, safety, and cost of introducing vaccinations for adults at the national level have yet to be answered, health planners and health care providers must be made aware of this critical topic. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of India must develop adult immunization policies and procedures, and there must be a concerted effort to include vaccines in the national immunization schedule that can assist reduce adults suffering from infectious diseases. Adult vaccination should be made a routine part of immunization because these vaccines have the potential to save millions of lives in India alone.

(The article is contributed by Dr Pruthu Narendra Dhekne, Consultant - Infectious Diseases, Fortis Hospitals, Bannerghatta Road)

Editorial Team

Editorial Team

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