Vaccines in adults?

Vaccines are the most important cause of reducing infections worldwide. In fact, they are the cause of the disappearance of smallpox (the last case was reported in 1963). Their use has led to a great improvement in childhood morbidity and mortality from infections such as measles, rubella, pneumococcus, influenza haemophilus and others. In areas around the world where the World Health Organization (WHO) vaccination guidelines are not strictly followed, epidemics of diseases that could be largely preventable occur regularly. At the same time, vaccines are a powerful weapon that significantly reduces the transmissibility of infectious diseases through immunity in many members of the community.

For children there is a national vaccination programme, which all children are obliged to follow from birth. That is why every child receives an individual health booklet after birth, which contains the vaccination schedule for the coming years.

But this is not the case with adults, mainly because their immune system allows them to respond better to both viral and microbial infections. But this does not mean that some infections are not preventable. As an example, we can take the flu, which is estimated to have claimed the lives of around 300-350 of our fellow citizens in the last two years according to recorded and certified cases. In reality, this number is higher, but its actual size cannot be accurately calculated due to the difficulty in identifying flu cases and the problems in recording them. I could quote similar figures for pneumonia, meningitis and pneumococcal septicaemia. But there the numbers are really big.

On the other hand, there are diseases that do not lead to death, but reduce the quality of life. An example is shingles, which can cause considerable pain both during its onset and after the acute lesion has receded (a condition called metherpetic neuralgia) and requires strong analgesics or even antidepressants or antiepileptic drugs to treat it. Finally, we should not forget vaccines which seem to be able to reduce the incidence of serious chronic diseases (such as human papillomavirus infection causing warts and cervical cancer).

The table below shows the vaccines that are recommended to be given to adults during their lifetime. In addition to these, there are other vaccines, but these are mainly recommended when travelling to areas of the world affected by epidemics or where certain germs are endemic (e.g. cholera vaccine).

* There is the triple (DTaP) vaccine containing antigens for all three microbes and the double (DT) vaccine containing antigens for tetanus and diphtheria.

** Women only for now.