Adults are 100 times more likely than children to die of diseases that vaccines can prevent.
Each year in the U.S., vaccine-preventable diseases claim the lives of 500 children and approximately 50,000 adults. While childhood immunization rates are at an all-time high, most adults don’t even realize they need to get vaccines.
Adults often don’t get vaccines because they don’t think they need them, or they are worried about how they are going to pay for them or they typically haven’t been encouraged to get them.
Why do adults need vaccines?
By the time we are adults, our immune systems have seen many infections and developed many memory cells. However, there are several reasons why vaccines are still necessary:
• Sometimes the vaccine does not provide lifelong protection because immunity fades, for example, with diphtheria, tetanus and pertussis vaccines.
• Sometimes the virus or bacteria changes through time, so the memory cells will not recognize it as well as it once did or even at all, as with influenza.
• Sometimes the aging immune system becomes susceptible to diseases that were less of a threat at an earlier age, such as shingles and pneumococcus.
All adults should get two vaccines: influenza and a combination tetanus, diphtheria and pertussis (Tdap).
Adults with no previous Tdap vaccine should receive one dose, particularly if they will be around infants and toddlers who haven’t completed their immunizations.
Pregnant women should get a single dose of Tdap between 27 and 36 weeks’ gestation during each pregnancy.
Pertussis can infect infants, children, adolescents and adults.
The influenza vaccine is for anyone over the age of 6 months.
If you are in need of a Tdap or influenza vaccine, please call the Dallas County Health Department at 515-993-3750 for an appointment today. It’s $62 for Tdap vaccine and $25 for influenza.
Ann Cochran is the health navigation coordinator in the Dallas County Public Health Department.
