Immunization Update: A Focus on Medical Indications for Vaccines in Adults – Nurse, Nurse Practitioner

The Healthy People 2030 report, published by the US Department of Health and Human Services, includes targets for reducing vaccine preventable disease rates and increasing vaccination rates in all age groups. The report points out that requiring school-age children to get vaccinated, educating adolescents, adults, and older adults about the importance of vaccinations, sending vaccination reminders, and making it easier for people to get vaccines can help increase vaccination rates in our population. Vaccines are one of the most cost-effective clinical preventive services; however, thousands of people in the US do not receive them and suffer – even die – from vaccine preventable diseases. Since 2010, flu-related deaths in the US have ranged from 12,000 to 56,000 per year. Pneumococcal pneumonia leads to about 5,000 deaths every year, mostly among the elderly. As many as 1.4 million people currently suffer from hepatitis B, with liver cancer as a potential complication. A number of communities with pockets of unvaccinated and under-vaccinated children have had measles outbreaks.