Vaccines are not just for babies; as life expectancy rises, senior citizens too need to take these shots
Vaccines aren’t just for kids. Adults, including seniors need them too. As people get older, their immune systems tend to weaken over time making them vulnerable to certain diseases.
Several diseases that are vaccine preventable cause significant illness and even death in unvaccinated seniors especially people with underlying chronic conditions like COPD, diabetes, kidney disease, liver disease, stroke, heart disease etc. The following four vaccines are a must for every senior citizen.
Influenza vaccine
Experts recommend an annual influenza vaccine (flu vaccination) for most adults. Senior citizens with pre-existing chronic diseases like Diabetes, Tuberculosis,COPD, asthma etc and smokers are particularly at risk of serious infection due to weakened immune system. The immunity provided by this vaccine is short-lived and vaccine manufacturers update it every year to make sure it is most effective against the current virus.
The flu season usually picks up in the winter months starting October and lasts upto March of every year. So the best way to prevent flu is by getting the vaccine before the advent of winter.
Patients with fever should wait to be vaccinated until fever subsides.
Zoster vaccine
The zoster vaccine, which protects against herpes zoster or shingles and it’s complications is recommended by CDC for every healthy adults 50 years and older.
Shingles is a very painful, contagious blistering rash caused by varicella zoster virus which affects people with weakened immunity mostly senior citizens. The vaccine may decrease the risk of having shingles by about 50 percent, or at least minimize its severity.
Pneumococcal vaccine
Pneumonia causes significant illness in senior citizens especially in smokers and people with COPD. Seniors and others who are at high risk for developing pneumonia should receive the pneumococcal vaccine as a one-time vaccination. Pneumococcal vaccines, which protect against pneumococcal disease, including infections in the lungs (pneumonia), bloodstream and brain (meningitis) is recommended for all adults over 65 years old.
In people older than 65 who have previously been vaccinated, a one-time repeat vaccination is recommended if 5 years or more have elapsed since the original shot.
Tetanus-Diphtheria-Pertussis (Tdap)
This vaccine contains the same components as the tetanus-diphtheria (Td) vaccine with the addition of the pertussis component. Every adult less than 64 years, should get this vaccine once if they have never received the pertussis vaccine. Anybody above 65 years of age should get the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine without the pertussis component.
