Adults Forgoing Important Vaccines

Jan 24, 07:26 PM

The numbers of newly vaccinated are surprisingly low, considering how much public attention a trio of new shots - which protect against shingles, whooping cough and cervical cancer - received in recent years.

Yet many seem to have missed, or forgotten, the news: A survey by the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases found that aside from the flu, most adults have trouble even naming diseases that they could prevent with a simple inoculation.

"We really need to get beyond the mentality that vaccines are for kids. Vaccines are for everybody," said Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who called the new data sobering.

The new CDC report found:

Only about 2 percent of Americans ages 60 and older received a vaccine against shingles in its first year of sales.

There are more than 1 million new cases a year of shingles, an excruciating rite of aging that causes a blistering skin rash. Up to 200,000 of them develop a complication, severe nerve pain that can last for months or even years. Anyone who ever had chickenpox is at risk .

About 2 percent of adults ages 18 to 64 got a booster shot against whooping cough in the two years since it hit the market.

The cough so strong it can break a rib is making a big comeback, because the vaccine given to babies and toddlers starts wearing off by adolescence.

About 10 percent of women ages 18 to 26 have received at least one dose of a three-shot series that protects against the human papillomavirus, or HPV, that causes cervical cancer. It is the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection.

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Is Cost a Factor?

The shingles shot costs around $150, and the three-shot HPV vaccine about $300. Insurance coverage varies.

There's no national program to guarantee access for adults who can't afford vaccines .

But adults aren't taking full advantage of some cheap old standby vaccines, either. Among people 65 or older, a high-risk age, CDC found only 69 percent get an annual flu shot, and just 66 percent have had a one-time pneumonia vaccine.

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Originally published by Associated Press .

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