Vaccines aren't just for kids – far too few
grown-ups are rolling up their sleeves, disappointed federal health officials
reported last Wednesday (1/23/2008).
The
numbers of newly vaccinated are surprisingly low, considering how much public
attention a trio of new shots — which protect against shingles, whooping cough
and cervical cancer — received in recent years.
Yet
many seem to have missed, or forgotten, the news: A survey by the National
Foundation for Infectious Diseases found that aside from the flu, most adults
have trouble even naming diseases that they could prevent with a simple
inoculation.
"We
really need to get beyond the mentality that vaccines are for kids. Vaccines
are for everybody," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, who called the new data sobering. "We obviously
have a lot more work to do."
The
new CDC report found:
Only
about 2 percent of Americans ages 60 and older received a vaccine against
shingles in its first year of sales.
There
are more than 1 million new cases a year of shingles, an excruciating rite of
aging that causes a blistering skin rash. Up to 200,000 of them develop a
complication, severe nerve pain that can last for months or even years. Anyone
who ever had chickenpox is at risk, especially once they hit their 60s, because
the chickenpox virus hibernates for decades in nerve cells until erupting
again.
"Many
people describe the shingles pain as the worst pain they've ever endured,"
said Dr. Michael Oxman of the University of California, San Diego.
About
2 percent of adults ages 18 to 64 got a booster shot against whooping cough in
the two years since it hit the market.
The
cough so strong it can break a rib is making a big comeback, because the
vaccine given to babies and toddlers starts wearing off by adolescence. Older
patients usually recover, but whooping cough can cause weeks of misery. Worse,
those people can easily spread the illness to not-yet-vaccinated infants, who
can die from the bacterial infection, also called pertussis.
The
pertussis booster was added to another long-recommended shot, a booster against
tetanus and diphtheria that adults should get every 10 years. The new triple
combo is called "Tdap." Sanofi-Aventis's
Adacel brand is for ages 11 to 64. There also is a version for 10- to
18-year-olds, GlaxoSmithKline's Boostrix.
About
10 percent of women ages 18 to 26 have received at least one dose of a
three-shot series that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that
causes cervical cancer.
There
are more than 100 different types of HPV, the most prevalent sexually
transmitted infection. Usually, the body gets rid of HPV without symptoms. But
certain high-risk strains can persist and cause genital warts or cervical
cancer.
The
vaccine, Merck's Gardasil, protects against four
of those high-risk types. That's not complete protection — so even the
vaccinated still need regular Pap smears — but those strains are responsible
for about 72 percent of cervical cancer and 90 percent of genital warts, said
Dr. Stanley Gall of the American College of
Obstetricians and Gynecologists.
Stay
tuned: The government is considering whether even more women should get the
vaccine — those up to age 45 who aren't yet infected, Gall said. And studies
are under way to see if it works in men.
Price
may play a role in these low vaccination rates. The shingles shot costs around
$150, and the three-shot HPV vaccine about $300,
and insurance coverage varies. There's no national program to guarantee access
for adults who can't afford vaccines as there is for child vaccines.
But
adults aren't taking full advantage of some cheap old standby vaccines, either.
Among people 65 or older, a high-risk age, CDC
found only 69 percent get an annual flu shot; just 66 percent have had a
one-time pneumonia vaccine; and 44 percent had received a tetanus shot in the
past 10 years.
Jason - a Lumen
