2023-09-25 09:52:31
Vaccination during all stages of life is an act that contributes to a healthy life and healthy aging. It not only prevents diseases, but also protects from the complications and disability often associated with these diseases.
The approval in 2019 Vaccination Calendar throughout life in Spainin line with what was happening in other European countries, has meant a real paradigm shift, moving from a pediatrician vision to a longitudinal one in step with the progressive aging of the population, and in which vaccination is no longer exclusive to children and adolescents and is incorporated into all ages as a responsible self-care practice.
All this was discussed in the Forum ‘Vaccines and the Silver generation‘ organized by ABC Salud in collaboration with GSK and which included the participation of Inmaculada Cuesta, secretary of the National Nursing and Immunization Association (ANENVAC); Jaime Pérez, president of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV) and Deputy Director General of Public Health of the Region of Murcia; and Martin Pessacg, specialist in Family and Community Medicine and Medical director of the San Andrés Health Center in Madrid.
It is estimated that In 2030 there will be almost 12 million people over 65 in Spain years and that in 2040, 40% of the European population will be over that age. And age is a predisposing factor to suffering from diseases that we can also prevent with safe and effective vaccines, says Inmaculada Cuesta.
With immunization a downward curve occurs. Immunization rates, says this vaccine expert, are “very good in the pediatric age”, almost 90 or 100%, but they decrease “as children reach adolescence and decrease even more among adults.”
Without lifelong immunization, infectious diseases such as Covid, seasonal influenza, shingles, whooping cough, pneumococcal disease, etc., would continue to cause substantial morbidity and mortality, especially in late adulthood.
“The ideal is for a person to reach adulthood with a complete vaccination history,” says Cuesta.
Because as Jaime Pérez recalls, in the adult population, especially the elderly, an infectious disease can bring “more consequences, an increase in fragility and a brutal loss of quality of life.”
With age and immunosenescence, the ability to defend oneself and protect oneself against diseases is lost. Immunosenescence, explains Martin Pessacg, “is nothing more than the aging of our defenses and vaccines are the only safe tool we currently have to combat it.”
With this change in the calendar, from the child to the entire life, it is intended to cover all age groups, not only up to 14 years of age as has happened until now.
For Cuesta, one of the most important aspects is precisely to reach older people, “where there is no culture of vaccination, often not even in the healthcare facilities themselves. “Unlike in children, where we are very clear that we must vaccinate, in adults it is not perceived as a necessity.”
The ideal is to reach adulthood with all the vaccines.
Immaculate Cuesta
ANENVAC Secretariat
Therefore it is key conscientize.
When a patient reaches the health system and is old enough, we have to be aware that “their defenses no longer have the same training or the same activation to protect them and we have to intervene,” says Pessacg.
It is that perception that “it doesn’t suit me because I’m not going to get sick, because I’m not going to get it and I’m not going to have any complications that makes many people reject vaccination,” acknowledges Inmaculada Cuesta.
Because when there is awareness, adults do get vaccinated.
With Covid, explains Jaime Pérez, “we have gone from a situation of confinement to another back to normality; and that has been thanks to vaccines.
With the pandemic, Cuesta adds, the perception of risk changed. “We didn’t have vaccines and people were getting sick and dying and, when they arrived, there was great acceptance.” But now, for example, it is thought that there is no longer Covid and fear has been lost. “Well, this is what happens with other diseases.”
The truth is that, experts agree, Vaccination remains an underused public health strategy despite its enormous socioeconomic and health benefits.
There is no doubt that immunization programs aimed at adults are now more important than ever and this has been demonstrated with the approval of the latest lifelong vaccination schedule that includes new vaccines and new vaccination recommendations for the next season .
Vaccines combat the aging of our defenses
Martin Pessacg
Specialist in Family and Community Medicine and Medical Director of the San Andrés Health Center in Madrid.
Among the healthy habits that are recommended for adults are not smoking, moderate alcohol consumption, following a healthy diet, exercising, etc.
And the vaccines?
“If we want to instill healthy habits well, we have to talk about immunization, the benefit of which is unquestionable,” comments the president of the AEV. And, since the preventive habit is not an issue that we constantly have in mind, “we have to make it easy.”
For Dr. Pessacg, the recommendation to inform the population of the vaccine possibilities and the benefits of vaccination has to be a “daily and constant” act. Vaccination is, par excellence, “the example of primary prevention.”
This family doctor believes that we must “generate an awareness, a wave, as happens with parents who take their children to be vaccinated.” He suggests, for example, that in nursing or primary care consultations, “vaccination appears in the checklist of important tasks. And, apply the rule of, “here I catch you, here you get vaccinated.”
“Family doctors,” he says, “are responsible for monitoring patients and adults at all times of life, with or without chronic diseases.”
In the elderly, an infection can bring more consequences and loss of quality of life
Jaime Pérez
President of the Spanish Association of Vaccinology (AEV) and Deputy Director General of Public Health of the Region of Murcia
In his opinion, “every medical act in primary care must be an opportunity to recommend a vaccine associated with the lifelong vaccination schedule.”
Another aspect that may influence the adult population’s lack of knowledge of the relevance of immunization is that it is something “relatively new”, only since 2012.
Unlike pediatric vaccination, explains Jaime Pérez, in adult vaccination there are only four vaccineswhich makes it more difficult to convey its relevance to society.
Furthermore, the effectiveness of these vaccines has been demonstrated in terms of reducing rates of hospitalization, disability, dependency and death. But these benefits go one step further, since the prevention of this type of disease has a direct impact on the economy, translating into cost savings, not only health-related but also social.
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