<\/div>\n
<\/div>“Patients themselves are not prioritizing vaccinations and doctors clearly are not prioritizing vaccinations as well,” said Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, a Toronto-based family physician and vaccine researcher.\u00a0(Craig Chivers\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\nA cruel irony, Crowcroft said, is that as seniors are more healthy and active than those in generations before, they may not think to get the vaccines recommended for their age group.<\/p>\n
“They’re busy,\u00a0out doing things, volunteering … enjoying life,” she said.<\/p>\n
But a bad bout of pneumonia or shingles can rob seniors of independence and push\u00a0them into a “vicious cycle of frailty,” she said.<\/p>\n
According to the latest data available from the\u00a0Public Health Agency of Canada, only 58 per cent of people age 65 and over reported having had the pneumococcal vaccine. Only 28 per cent of adults 50 years of age and over reported having receiving a shingles vaccine.<\/p>\n
Crowcroft\u00a0and her team at the University of Toronto are in the midst of a study to examine whether improving those vaccination rates will help “prevent people who were otherwise healthy from deteriorating and becoming really quite frail.”<\/p>\n
\n
What vaccines do I need as an adult?<\/h2>\n
Make sure you had your childhood shots for:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Measles, mumps and rubella (MMR).<\/li>\n
- Polio.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
From age nine up to age 45:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Human Papillomavirus (HPV):\u00a0<\/strong>The vaccine prevents several types of cervical cancer. It can be given as early as age nine and up to age 45.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
At 24 years of age or younger:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Meningococcal (meningitis).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
As an adult (all ages):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Tetanus and diphtheria: Booster shot every 10 years. Vaccines for both are now given together. Check to make sure your last tetanus vaccination included diphtheria protection.<\/li>\n
- Pertussis (whooping cough): One dose as an adult and during each pregnancy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Seasonal (every year because the strain of influenza changes):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Flu shot.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
If you think you’re among the minority of people who didn’t have chicken pox as a child (your doctor can check with a blood test):<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Varicella (chicken pox).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
For seniors:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Shingles (vaccine can be given as early as age 50, definitely recommended at age 60 and over): Shingles causes not only a rash, but excruciating pain. Nerve damage is sometimes permanent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
\n- Pneumococcal (vaccine recommended for all adults age 65 and over, as well as younger adults with certain chronic conditions or a compromised immune system): Can cause bacterial pneumonia and other invasive infections, including sepsis.\u00a0Seniors are especially vulnerable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Other vaccines may be recommended for some adults \u2014 talk to your doctor:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Hepatitis A.<\/li>\n
- Hepatitis B.<\/li>\n
- Travel vaccines (can include Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, cholera, meningococcal, Japanese encephalitis, tick-borne encephalitis, rabies, typhoid, yellow fever).\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
(Source: Public Health Agency of Canada)<\/em><\/p>\nHow to increase vaccination rates for adults<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\nThe solution, Crowcroft and Gorfinkel\u00a0said,\u00a0lies in a more coordinated approach to tracking vaccinations in a fragmented health-care system, as well as\u00a0better use of existing technology.<\/p>\n
“What we need \u2014 and desperately so \u2014 are robust provincial and territorial vaccination registries,” Gorfinkel said.<\/p>\n
Existing registries are targeted to children, she said, and don’t track adult vaccinations.<\/p>\n
In an “ideal world,” she said, such\u00a0registries could be largely automated.<\/p>\n
Health-care providers should be able to scan a patient’s health card, as well as the vaccine, and then transmit that information to the patient’s health record, as well as public health databases, she said.<\/p>\n
Electronic technology could also go a step further and send out reminders to people to get their vaccines, Gorfinkel\u00a0said \u2014 whether it’s an email every 10 years to tell patients they’re due for a tetanus and diphtheria booster, or a notification to seniors prompting them to get a shingles vaccination.<\/p>\n
Cost is another barrier that needs to be overcome, she said.<\/p>\n
Not all vaccines for adults are covered under government health plans \u2014 and coverage varies between provinces and territories.<\/p>\n
Most provinces and territories don’t cover the cost of shingles vaccinations, which can cost about $200 to $350 \u2014 a steep price for many seniors.<\/p>\n
Ontario pays for the shingles vaccine Zostavax \u2014 but only for seniors between 65 and 70 years of age.<\/p>\n
“The 65 to 70 year age range for eligibility is aligned with scientific evidence on the effectiveness of Zostavax and expert recommendations from the National Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI) and Public Health Ontario,” a\u00a0spokesperson for Ontario’s Ministry of Health said in an email response to CBC News.<\/p>\n
The newer shingles vaccine \u2014 Shingrix \u2014 is not covered in Ontario.<\/p>\n
Gorfinkel and Crowcroft hope\u00a0that governments at all levels will recognize the value \u2014 human and financial \u2014 of covering the cost of vaccines for adults.<\/p>\n
“Does it make sense to treat [a disease]\u00a0once you have it?\u00a0Or does it make more sense to actually provide the vaccination? And the data on this is very clear. The vaccination wins, hands down,” Gorfinkel said.<\/p>\n
CBC<\/p>\n
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