{"id":56056,"date":"2020-03-05T11:03:27","date_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/?p=56056"},"modified":"2020-03-05T11:03:27","modified_gmt":"2020-03-05T16:03:27","slug":"as-canadians-clamour-for-coronavirus-vaccine-many-arent-getting-immunized-against-other-diseases","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mileniostadium.com\/canada\/as-canadians-clamour-for-coronavirus-vaccine-many-arent-getting-immunized-against-other-diseases\/","title":{"rendered":"As Canadians clamour for coronavirus vaccine, many aren’t getting immunized against other diseases"},"content":{"rendered":"

As scientists race to develop a vaccine to combat the coronavirus epidemic, many Canadian adults aren’t taking advantage of immunizations that are already available to protect them against other threatening diseases,\u00a0public health experts say.<\/p>\n

A vaccine for the new coronavirus, which causes the illness known as COVID-19,\u00a0could eventually become part of recommended seasonal vaccinations \u2014 like the flu shot.<\/p>\n

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But it’s “really hard to predict” when that might become a reality, said\u00a0Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto.<\/p>\n

“Everyone who can is working flat out to make it happen, but there are so many steps to go through to make sure a vaccine is safe and effective,” she told CBC News.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, Crowcroft hopes the widespread call\u00a0for a coronavirus vaccine serves as “a wake-up call” to remind people of the\u00a0role vaccines play in stopping the spread of illness.<\/p>\n

“People can worry about not yet having a vaccine for COVID-19, or they can go get the vaccines we already have to keep them healthy,” she said.<\/p>\n

Adults not keeping up with vaccines<\/h2>\n

Public health authorities and parents tend to focus on getting children vaccinated, largely because there are routine childhood vaccination schedules for measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), polio, petussis (whooping cough), tetanus, diphtheria and\u00a0other diseases,\u00a0depending on the province or territory.<\/p>\n

But adults often forget that they need vaccinations too \u2014 whether it’s their tetanus and diphtheria booster shot every 10 years, getting the HPV vaccine to prevent\u00a0several forms of cervical cancer, or\u00a0protecting themselves against increased vulnerability to pneumonia and shingles when they become seniors.<\/p>\n

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Public health efforts tend to do a better job at making sure children get the vaccinations they need than they do with adults, said Dr. Natasha Crowcroft, director of the Centre for Vaccine Preventable Diseases at the University of Toronto.\u00a0(Claude Martel)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

“Everybody focuses on the kids … and it’s very easy to forget about the adults,” Crowcroft said. “We tend to think, oh, you know, adults are in charge of their own health.<\/p>\n

“[But] we’re all much worse at prevention than cure.\u00a0So we we wait until we get sick and then we think, ‘oh maybe I should have had that flu shot.'”<\/p>\n

According to the Public Health Agency of Canada, most adult Canadians believe they are up-to-date with the vaccines recommended for their age group \u2014 but few of them actually are.<\/p>\n

While 88 per cent\u00a0of individuals “believed that they received all of the vaccines recommended for someone their age,” only 3 per cent\u00a0of respondents “reported having received all of the recommended adult vaccines for their age\/risk group,” according to the\u00a0<\/a>2016 Adult National Immunization Coverage Survey.\u00a0The survey,\u00a0conducted by Environics Research on behalf of the Public Health Agency of Canada, measured interview responses from more than 3,000 adults across Canada.<\/p>\n

That rate of immunization among adults\u00a0is “unbelievably low,” said Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, a family physician in Toronto who has contributed to several clinical research studies on vaccination.<\/p>\n

“We’re simply not giving it\u00a0the time that it needs,” Gorfinkel\u00a0told Dr. Brian Goldman, host of\u00a0CBC’s The Dose podcast.<\/p>\n

“Patients themselves are not prioritizing vaccinations and doctors clearly are not prioritizing vaccinations as well,” she said.\u00a0“That’s the conundrum here \u2014 that if you’re healthy, you’re probably not even going to go [to the doctor’s office].”<\/p>\n

Faced with patients who have increasingly complex health issues, such as diabetes or hypertension, along\u00a0with a waiting room full of other people wanting to be seen, discussions about vaccine status simply don’t happen \u2014 so Gorfinkel recommends\u00a0dedicating\u00a0a full appointment for\u00a0a vaccine review to make sure people are up-to-date.<\/p>\n

Vaccinations for seniors critical, doctors say<\/h2>\n

As people age, their immune systems decline, making\u00a0illnesses \u2014 from flu to pneumonia \u2014 much more dangerous, and increasing the need for protection through vaccination, both Crowcroft and Gorfinkel said.<\/p>\n

Seniors are also at risk of shingles \u2014 a\u00a0disease that happens when the varicella-zoster virus (which causes\u00a0chicken pox in kids) reactivates in the body.<\/p>\n

People often think\u00a0shingles is “just a rash,” Gorfinkel said \u2014 but for many, it’s a devastating disease.<\/p>\n

The virus lies dormant near the spinal cord, so when it\u00a0reactivates as shingles, “it comes traipsing down the nerve,” she said, causing excruciating pain and nerve damage \u2014 which can sometimes be permanent.<\/p>\n

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“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>\n

A 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

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What vaccines do I need as an adult?<\/h2>\n

Make sure you had your childhood shots for:<\/strong><\/p>\n