Download Nowadays, preventable infectious diseases still represent a major

Vaccine Preventable Diseases:
Towards a life course vaccination programme
Jean-Pierre MICHEL
Department of Rehabilitation and Geriatrics
Medical School and University Hospitals – Geneva – Switzerland
[email protected]
Vaccines which have drastically reduced the burden of preventable childhood infectious
diseases are not yet accepted as contributing to improving healthy ageing. The absence of
sustainability in vaccine programmes does not enable maintenance of life-long protection
against such childhood diseases as measles, diphtheria, and pertussis. In the
unvaccinated population the incidence of these diseases increases in young and also old
adults. Currently, infectious diseases remain a significant cause of morbidity and mortality
in the adult population over 60 years of age and many of these diseases are vaccinepreventable. In the USA, in 2006, it was estimated that approximately 200 children die
annually from vaccine preventable infectious diseases (VPDs), while each year more than
70,000 adults die due to VPDs — a stunning 350-fold difference! (1). In Europe, the data
are probably similar if not worse because of the heterogeneous and generally low
immunization rates in the population, probably linked to highly divergent clinical
recommendations and public health policies.
Longer life expectation necessitates consensual vaccine guidelines based on better
knowledge of the process of immunosenescence. The recently published European clinical
vaccine guidelines, consensually produced at the request of the two European geriatric
and gerontological societies (EUGMS and IAGG-ER) promote a life course vaccine
program (2) which :
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supports healthy ageing by filling the mid-life adult vaccine gap,
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assures detailed and specific vaccination recommendations against the VPDs, after
the 7th decade of life concerning both life threatening-diseases (tetanus, invasive
pneumococcal disease, and influenza) and diseases which adversely impact
patient's quality of life (pertussis and herpes zoster),
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complements existing information and provide practical guidance to health care
professionals dealing with the older people (or to their family members) regarding
the willingness to vaccinate and being vaccinated (3).
1) Poland GA, Jacobson RM, Ovsyannikova IG. Trends affecting the future of vaccine development and delivery: the role of
demographics,regulatory science, the anti-vaccine movement, and vaccinomics. Vaccine 2009;27:3240-4
2)
Michel JP, Chidiac C, Grubeck-Loebenstein B, et al. Advocating vaccination of adults aged 60 years and older in Western Europe:
statement by the Joint Vaccine Working Group of the European Union Geriatric Medicine Society and the International Association of
Gerontology and Geriatrics-European Region. Rejuvenation Res 2009;12:127-35.
3) Baeyens JP, Lang PO, Michel JP. Willingness to vaccinate and to be vaccinated in adults. Aging Clin Exp Res 2009;21:244-9