Reasons for adult immunization -- prevention of most frequent respiratory infections

Abstract

The adult vaccination is utilized insufficiently as a preventive method currently, even the incidence and mortality of vaccine-preventable infections is very high in the elderly and patients with immunocompromised conditions. They should be protected due to many reasons: the rate of these individuals are getting higher in the population, the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy is limited and becoming more significant due to antibiotic resistance, the quality of life in survivors of severe infections is deteriorated, resulting huge burden to the individual and society as well. The impaired functions of immune system with the advancing age cause higher morbidity and mortality especially in respiratory infections, it is representing in the incidence and high lethality of community acquired pneumonia in older adults. Beyond the old polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) the inclusion of new conjugate vaccine (PCV13) means a significant improvement in the prevention of pneumococcal infections, providing a possibility to prevent not just pneumococcal infections with bacteraemia caused by serotypes presented in the vaccine, but non-bacteraemic pneumonias as well. The necessity of flu vaccines cannot be stressed enough even the vaccines is not so effective in elderly than in younger adults: annual immunization against influenza administering together with pneumococcal vaccination decrease significantly the number, severity and complications in older adults as well. Further improvement in protection of immunocompromised patients is the establishment of cocoon immunity with the vaccination of close contacts.