Adult vaccines need PR boost

Washington -- Adult patients need to know that vaccines are something you don't outgrow, and the National Foundation for Infectious Diseases is mounting a campaign to help physicians carry this message forward.

"We need to do a better job communicating to patients," said Robert H. Hopkins, MD, associate professor of internal medicine at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock and a member of the American College of Physicians' Adult Immunization Advisory Board. "Immunity needs to be viewed as a lifetime process."

Dr. Hopkins and others spoke at an April 2 online scientific symposium organized by NFID.

Traditional adult vaccines to prevent influenza, pneumonia and tetanus have been joined by several others, including those that help prevent hepatitis B, shingles and cervical cancer. Yet many adults aren't aware of these new additions, said the panel of physicians.

Approximately 50,000 adult Americans die each year from vaccine-preventable diseases, said Andrew Kroger, MD, MPH, a medical epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Most of these deaths, or 36,000, result from influenza infections, and another 3,670 are due to cervical cancer.

Why is it that adults are not getting vaccinated in greater numbers? Nearly 40% of adults ages 50 and older who were polled by the AARP in 2007 said they didn't think they needed to be vaccinated, said Cora Christian, MD, a family physician from Frederiksted, Virgin Islands, and an AARP spokesperson.

Another 40% of adults surveyed last year by the NFID said they didn't need additional vaccines because they had them as children. Thirty-four percent said they weren't concerned about catching diseases, and 32% said they weren't concerned about passing a disease to others.

Physicians need to educate patients, said Susan Rehm, MD, NFID medical director and vice chair of the Dept. of Infectious Diseases at the Cleveland Clinic.

To assist in this process, NFID offers new resources online (link). Included on the site are a model for an appointment reminder card that stresses the need for vaccines and a script that can be tailored to highlight adult immunization messages. The initiative is supported by several physician groups, including the AMA.

"Adults don't understand the risks they face and how safe vaccinations are," said William Schaffner, MD, president-elect of NFID and chair of the Dept. of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee. "It's difficult to conceptualize the value of prevention."