Study Finds Adults Are Skipping Vaccinations

Jan 25, 01:57 AM

The numbers of the newly vaccinated are surprisingly low, considering the attention a trio of new shots - which protect against shingles, whooping cough and cervical cancer - received.

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 a vaccine could prevent.

"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:

l Only about 2 percent of Americans 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, especially once they hit their 60s, because the chickenpox virus hibernates for decades in nerve cells until erupting again.

"Many people describe the shingles pain as the worst pain they've ever endured," said Dr. Michael Oxman of the University of California, San Diego.

The shingles vaccine, Merck & Co.'s Zostavax, isn't perfect, but it cuts in half the risk of shingles - and those who still get it have a much milder case.

* About 2 percent of adults 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. Older patients usually recover, but whooping cough can cause weeks of misery. Worse, those people can easily spread the illness to not-yet-vaccinated infants, who can die from the bacterial infection, also called pertussis.

The pertussis booster was added to another long-recommended shot, a booster against tetanus and diphtheria that adults should get every 10 years. The new triple combo is called "Tdap." Sanofi- Aventis's Adacel brand is for ages 11 to 64. There also is a version for 10- to 18-year-olds, GlaxoSmithKline's Boostrix.

* About 10 percent of women 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.

There are more than 100 different types of HPV, the most prevalent sexually transmitted infection.

Usually, the body gets rid of HPV without symptoms. But certain high-risk strains can persist and cause genital warts or cervical cancer.

The vaccine, Merck's Gardasil, protects against four of those high-risk types. That's not complete protection - so even the vaccinated still need regular Pap smears - but those strains are responsible for about 72 percent of cervical cancer and 90 percent of genital warts.

Originally published by Associated Press.

(c) 2008 Augusta Chronicle, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved. Study Finds Adults Are Skipping Vaccinations
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