Do you know all the vaccines you need this season? Here’s a convenient guide
For SuperAgers, there are few health topics that are more fragmentary and incomplete than vaccines.
Many of us think mainly of the vaccines we received as young children, like measles and mumps and polio, and assume we’re now largely “covered.” There have been a few new categories, of course, like the annual flu shot and the barrage of sudden vaccines for COVID. But are we really aware of the whole range of what’s out there, what we need, and what may be missing?
Do we know what new research may have been going on in the field, and whether or not there are “new” vaccines more powerful than their predecessors?
And are there special needs or cautions — or imperatives — caused by the fact that we’re now past 50 or past 65 or even older?
There excellent articles here and here that will get you started with an overview. This is information you must have.
The first article, by AARP, notes that new vaccines are being developed, so it’s even more important to stay up to date. The article quotes Morgan Katz, M.D., an assistant professor of medicine at John Hopkins University School of Medicine: “There are new vaccines that have come out in the past several years, specifically aimed at older adults.” One example is Shingrix, an effective shingles vaccine, which we’ve written about here. Another is a vaccine for RSV, approved last year.
The article identifies eight vaccines you need to have. The article provides full details, including brand names and availability, but here are the highlights:
Influenza
You get the flu shot once a year, ideally by the end of October (flu season typically runs from October until the end of March). Because the flu virus changes every year, a new vaccine is developed every year.
Don’t take this lightly. Flu is to blame for hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations and tens of thousands of deaths each year, and the over-65 age group accounts for 50% to 70% of those hospitalizations and 70% to 85% of those deaths.
If you’re older than 65, you should make sure to receive the high-dose version of the flu shot.
COVID-19
This is clearly headed for “annual” status, as the vaccines become updated to deal with new variants of COVID. From the article: “For now, the advice from health experts is to “stay up to date” on your vaccines and get one before the fall and winter virus season. Updated COVID-19 shots were recently approved and are available in doctors’ offices and pharmacies throughout the country.”
As we’ve learned from bitter experience, COVID is particularly risky for adults over 50, “who are more likely to suffer complications from an infection.
RSV
Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a common respiratory virus that produces cold-like symptoms that may be mild but can escalate, particularly among older adults, into severe respiratory problems. “Each year, it causes 60,000 to 160,000 hospitalizations and 6,000 to 10,000 deaths among adults 65 and older” in the USA, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
Three vaccines have been approved for older adults: Arexvy, from manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, Abrysvo, from drugmaker Pfizer, and mRESVIA, from Moderna. The current recommendation that you need to be vaccinated only once. But this is a fairly new topic, so the advice may change.
Pneumococcal vaccine
These vaccines are not the same as a flu vaccine. They protect against a type of bacteria, not a virus like the flu. Before COVID, pneumococcal disease, which can cause pneumonia, “killed more people in the US each year than all other vaccine-preventable diseased combined.”
Three vaccines are approved, known as PCV15, PCV20 and PCV23. If you haven’t yet had a pneumococcal vaccine, you will probably receive PCV15 or PCV20 followed by POCV23 a year later.
Tdap (tetanus, diphtheria, pertussis)
“(A new) Tdap vaccine came out in 2005, and along with protecting against tetanus and diphtheria, like the vaccine it replaced, it includes additional protection against whooping cough, also known as pertussis.”
Adults are supposed to receiver a booster shot every 10 years. Check with your doctor, of course, if you don’t remember getting this shot at all.
Shingles (herpes zoster)
It’s recommended that everyone over 50 get the new Shingrix shingles vaccine, “even if they have had the earlier recommended vaccine, Zostavax.”
Shingles causes a red rash and painful blisters and, in about 15 percent of the cases, leads to ongoing extreme nerve pain that can last for months or even years. “Shingrix can protect 97 percent of people in their 50s and 60s, and 91percent of those in their 70s and 80s.”
Hepatitis A
Hepatitis A is a disease of the liver. Infections are usually caused by Travel to another country where the virus is common. The vaccine is given once — in two doses over six months. Since the vaccine first became available in 1995, rates have declined by more than 95 percent.
Hepatitis B
This requires three doses: the second comes four weeks after the first; the third comes five months after the second. Risk factors for being infected by hepatitis B include being on kidney dialysis, travelling to countries where hepatitis B is common, or having HIV.
It’s important to realize that the world of vaccines is not static, and that new research and new products are constantly being developed to keep up to the way the sources of infections are themselves mutating and adapting. The best advice is to make this a permanent topic when you talk to your doctor.
