The aging of the population is a reality that implies unavoidable challenges at all levels, including preventing the collapse and saturation of the health system in the future. Add health to the years of life of the population it becomes a priority objective for which it is essential to vaccinate adults. This was revealed by leading experts at the meeting “Vaccines for healthy aging”, organized by the Health Observatory, with the support of GSK.
And it is that, as he explained Isabel Jimeno, head of the Vaccine Group of the Spanish Society of General and Family Physicians (SEMG)“Vaccination at all stages of life is essential for a healthy life and for healthy aging, since it not only prevents certain diseases, but also prevents the complications, sequelae, disability and death associated with these diseases”.
According to Alfredo Corell, Professor of Immunology at the University of Valladolid, “men and women over the age of 60 experience a decline in the functioning of their defenses that makes them especially susceptible to infectious diseases.” For this reason, “vaccinating ourselves is of paramount importance to help prevent diseases such as the flu, herpes zoster or covid that can imply risks to life and quality of life.” Thus, “just as we work to encourage a better diet, physical exercise, emotional support or avoid consuming toxic substances; It is important that the elderly are up to date on vaccination.
However, unlike childhood vaccination, coverage in adults is low. According to Guadalupe Fontán, coordinator of the Nursing Research Institute of the General Nursing Council“the population is unaware and, therefore, has a low perception of the risk posed by preventable diseases in those over 65 years of age, so training must be promoted to promote knowledge, dismantle hoaxes and promote everyone’s confidence”.
Traditionally, according to Ángel Gil, Professor of Preventive Medicine and Public Health at the Rey Juan Carlos University, «the focus of prevention has focused on chronicity, leaving aside primary prevention; For this reason, it is essential to promote the use of the tools recommended by the Public Health authorities that prevent diseases and that directly affect the maintenance of quality of life over time.
It is especially important to ensure that this immunization effectively reaches the adult population with risk factors. This is how he exposed it Carmen Román Ortiz, preventivist at La Mancha Centro Hospitalwho advocated “continuous training with the aim of promoting vaccination as it is a safe, effective and necessary measure to prevent them from suffering infections, improve their quality of life and facilitate the continuity of their treatments”.
Improvement
Following the recent approval of the new lifelong vaccination schedule by the Interterritorial Council, which includes as novelty the vaccine against herpes zoster for people over 65 years of agethe communities finalize strategies that improve coverage in adults.
According to Elena Andradas, Director of Public Health of the Community of Madrid“adult vaccination is one of the best investments in health and we have already launched new programs against herpes zoster and pneumococcus to reduce the impact of these pathologies on quality of life, hospital admissions and loss of autonomy in the greatest number of people possible.
Castilla y León also has an innovative immunization program that includes the herpes zoster vaccine and the improved pneumococcal vaccine in adult cohorts, with very high coverage. A merit that, in the words of Sonia Tamames, director of Public Health of the Junta de Castilla y León, «corresponds to attributing to the population that values prevention programs very positively». However, he sees it necessary “to insist on education to improve the perception of vaccines as a tool to anticipate the disease.”
Launching awareness campaigns and active recruitment are some of the challenges in Castilla-La Mancha. His Director of Public Health, Juan Camacho, showed the commitment of this region to immunization and the economic effort they have been making. And it is that, “the objective is to take advantage of the trend generated after the pandemic and the current knowledge about the value of vaccines to continue moving in the right direction.” Among his most immediate improvement goals, he mentioned the upcoming addition of the herpes zoster vaccine.
The growing role of the adult population in Public Health policies is already a fact in the Canary Islands, as he explained. José Juan Alemán, general director of Public Health on the islands. Specifically, the Canary Islands would be developing an active aging strategy, in which “vaccines play a special role.” The program seeks to implement tools to equate the coverage achieved in childhood to the adult stage, betting on training and awareness programs.
Discussion about this post