Last quarter, one of my peers in Methods came down with an illness in the last week of class. We didn’t even get to say goodbye to her after the quarter was over because she was so sick. We later found out that she had fallen prey to shingles, or the adult version of chicken pox. I suppose she had not had the shingles vaccination.
Apparently my peer isn’t the only one who could have avoided an infectious disease if she would have taken its vaccine. New data shows that adults are getting immunized at low rates and that they aren’t very aware of the potential threat of infectious diseases. The National Foundation for Infectious Diseases is sponsoring an event Wednesday talking about the low public awareness of the importance of adult vaccinations.
Here are some quick facts from the data:
- More than 1 million shingles cases per year
- About 6 million HPV cases a year and 10,000 cervical cancer cases
- Significant rise in whopping cough
My friend who had shingles could have taken the vaccine for it, but many of us in our early 20s are not thinking of getting vaccinated for a disease that is most common in people over 50. The FDA-approved shingles vaccine has been out on the market for over a year. Because of the unpredictability of infectious diseases, the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases wants adults to be more aware of the vaccines available to them.
Vaccines could prevent countless cases of the infectious diseases mentioned above and could prevent the deaths of many American adults. Why face the disease if you can prevent it by taking a vaccine?
January 23, 2008 at 8:46 pm
[...] up to my post on low immunization rates in American adults, maybe the U.S.’s National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has a point. Not [...]
February 11, 2008 at 2:34 pm
[...] up to my post on low immunization rates in American adults, maybe the U.S.’s National Foundation for Infectious Diseases has a point. Not [...]