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Last month I wrote about the two flu shots available this year that many of us need to take to protect ourselves against both H1N1 swine flu and the regular plain-old seasonal flu, which kills 35,000 Americans every single year. While most of my patients are aware of both the regular seasonal flu shot and the swine flu vaccine (although some of them still don’t get vaccinated), many are NOT aware of the available vaccines that can prevent other deadly diseases that kill up to 15,000 Americans each and every year.
In this article, I discuss some of the vaccines needed by adults, specifically the vaccines for pertussis (commonly known as whooping cough), shingles and pneumococcal pneumonia. These diseases may sound as if they only occur “elsewhere,” but that is not the case. It is a shame that every year they occur here on Capitol Hill because many people simply do not get the vaccinations they should. By not doing so they put themselves – and others – at needless risk.
I picked these particular vaccinations because of their importance for adults and because they demonstrate the reasons why adults still need vaccinations. In the case of pertussis, the vaccine received as a child does not provide lifelong protection because immunity fades. In the cases of shingles and pneumoccal pneumonia, as we age the immune system becomes susceptible to diseases that were less of a threat at a younger age. (In last month’s article, I discussed influenza, which demonstrates a third reason why adults still require vaccinations: this virus changes periodically so that our cells may not recognize it as well, or even at all. Thus, a new influenza vaccine is produced each year.)
Pertussis
Each year in the United States, there are more than 800,000 cases of pertussis with 15 to 20 deaths. While we think of pertussis primarily as a disease of young infants and children, it often is transmitted from adults to young infants and children. The bacteria which causes pertussis makes a toxin which causes people to have thick, sticky mucus that clogs the trachea and causes painful spasms of coughing. These spasms make it difficult to breathe, eat or drink.
Because young infants have a narrower trachea, or windpipe, they are particularly at risk. Adults may simply have a cough which lasts for several weeks and not realize that they are infected with pertussis. This and the fact that adults can transmit the infection to children, makes it important to be up-to-date on this vaccine.
This vaccine is given as part of the tetanus and diphtheria booster. Thus, if you have not had Tdap (Tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis vaccine) as an adult, when you get your next tetanus and diphtheria booster, you should get Tdap (including pertussis), rather than Td (without pertussis).
Shingles
Every year shingles affects between 500,000 and one million people in this country. Symptoms include a rash – usually along a nerve path – and severe pain. The pain can last for months or years. This is an infection you want to avoid. The pain can be so severe that it causes sleeplessness, depression and weight loss.
Shingles is more likely to occur as we age. However, anyone with a weakened immune system from any cause is more susceptible to shingles. For example, having another infection or receiving chemotherapy can cause your immune system to be weakened.
Shingles occurs when the chickenpox virus, which is silently present in the nervous system of anyone who has had chickenpox before, becomes reactivated as the immune system weakens. Thus, the shingles vaccine is recommended for everyone who is 60 years of age or older and has not had the vaccine before. Even if you have had shingles, the vaccine can protect you from another outbreak. Since as many as 5 percent of people who get shingles will get it again, it is well worth the cost to be vaccinated.
Pneumococcal Pneumonia
Pneumococcal pneumonia is primarily a disease of the older population (over 65) and is pneumonia caused by the bacteria known as pneumococcus. The bacteria is present in the noses and throats of 25 percent of all people and is transmitted by coughing and sneezing to susceptible people. Each year, 175,000 people are hospitalized with pneumococcal pneumonia, and among the elderly, five to seven of every 100 people die from this pneumonia. Thus, this vaccine is recommended once for all people beginning at age 65. In addition, those with chronic illnesses – which make them more susceptible to serious effects of pneumonia, such as those with heart disease, diabetes, pulmonary disease, cancer or AIDS – also should be vaccinated, regardless of their age.
All of the diseases discussed in this article are serious, painful and/or deadly. But all are largely preventable through available vaccines. So get the shots you need. It is not hard to protect yourself. |
