Vaccination coverage outside of pediatric age is a challenge not only in Mexico, but throughout the world, laments Dr. Gloria Huerta, a vaccine specialist, when speaking of the importance of older adults having their vaccination schedule complete.
Given this, he says, strategies are being carried out globally to achieve broader coverage of essential vaccines, that is, those that prevent diseases that impact mortality in adults, mainly older adults.
In the country, the vaccination scheme for the elderly has three vaccines: pneumococcal polysaccharide, tetanus-diphtheria and seasonal influenza. The pneumococcal vaccine prevents pneumonia caused by the pneumococcal bacteria, and the tetanus-diphtheria vaccine protects, as its name implies, against tetanus and diphtheria.
However, there are other vaccines that, although they are not available in the public sector, help prevent other diseases such as herpes zoster, whose main risk factor is aging.
In an interview with El Diario after a symposium on vaccines, Dr. Huerta stressed that 16 diseases can be prevented through vaccination in adulthood, including hepatitis A and B, tetanus, pneumococcal disease, influenza, measles, chickenpox, human papilloma and diphtheria, herpes zoster.
“One of the things that we now know about adult vaccination is that it also helps us strengthen the immune system. Vaccinating ourselves throughout life, not just in childhood, will make these vaccination boosters stimulate the immune system and allow us to reach adulthood and old age in a more resilient way and achieving a better response capacity. to certain noxious stimuli.
The specialist stressed that vaccination in adulthood helps reduce mortality from the diseases it prevents, helps reduce morbidity and has a much stronger immune system.
However, vaccination coverage in older adults is still low. “In Mexico, the coverage of the entire scheme that is seen in the primer is 46% in adults. Even when it is on the primer and we are seeing them, we do not have the visibility of where to get vaccinated and which ones are ”.
“Even if you ask an adult how their card is, they will say what card? There is a primer for the elderly and, even so, we do not have this coverage, which has always been a challenge, a challenge due to the myths that vaccination is exclusively pediatric,” says Dr. Gloria Huerta.— Iván Canul Ek
2023-08-27 06:59:00
#Vaccination #older #adults #Yucatan
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