THIS vaccine for adults aged 50+ can prevent winter illnesses, as per CDC

A major shift in U.S.

public health policy

: Adults 50 and older should be vaccinated against

pneumococcal disease

, a bacterial infection that can cause pneumonia and other serious illnesses,

health officials

said on Thursday. An endorsement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (

CDC

) lowers the minimum age to include older adults in its new policy, going proactively against this significant health threat.

CDC Director Dr. Mandy Cohen said, as per reports, “Now’s a great time to get vaccinated against pneumococcal disease in preparation for the

winter respiratory season

.” The recommendation emerged from a recent Atlanta meeting where a scientific advisory panel voted overwhelmingly in favour of the change. It was 14-1.

The yearly invasive pneumococcal disease cases reported in the U.S. are nearly 30,000. Moreover, according to the CDC, about 30 per cent of that number occurs in persons aged 50 to 64. Given this weakness, the new CDC guidelines will now do much more for elderly people because they are more susceptible. Four such vaccines are presently available for preventing pneumococcal disease.

The most recently approved is

Merck

‘s

Capvaxive

, which was designed exclusively for adults 50 and above. This vaccine is good at offering protection against 21 kinds of pneumococci– including eight strains that have not been covered by earlier vaccines and can prevent invasive and severe bacterial infections.
Although the CDC has recommended this vaccine for patients at higher risk, concerns remain about booster shots in coming years. Other promising new vaccines are also in the pipeline that may once again change recommendations. The recommendations regarding pneumococcal vaccines have often been said to be complex and confusing.

“Pneumococcal has been a very confusing recommendation for many years, and the problem has been trying to explain new recommendations, which can be hard when they happen frequently,” noted Dr Jamie Loehr, chairman of the CDC advisory committee’s pneumococcal working group and the only dissenting vote on the proposal.

Despite these challenges, this new recommendation should be widely accepted by healthcare providers and insurance companies, giving adequate protection in the hands of more elderly Americans. In approaching winter, this updated recommendation marks an important step for protecting the health of Americans. By lowering the vaccination age, health officials hope to cut the incidence of pneumococcal disease and its complications. With simple preventive measures such as vaccination, there will be even greater peace of mind among older adults as they sit through the colder months ahead.
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