National Immunization Awareness Month: Vaccines - Infancy To Adulthood To Older Age

Among the most effective public health interventions, vaccination saves lives at all stages. Therefore, it is important to make people aware of how various vaccines keep them safe from infancy through adulthood into old age.

Dr Neha Rastogi Panda, Consultant Infectious Diseases, Fortis Memorial Research Institute, Gurugram, says, “Vaccines are a baby’s first line of defence against serious diseases such as measles, mumps, and rubella in infancy, whooping cough, and so on. Early vaccinations are important because a child is very prone to infections at a tender age. The immunizations increase and boost one’s body immune system, hence reducing the chance of severe disease and also preventing diseases from spreading in communities.”

Booster shots and new vaccines, such as those against HPV, are very crucial in the extension of protection against diseases that might attack if the children advance to adolescence. For example, the HPV vaccine has been shown to be very effective against some cancers that develop later in life. Such vaccinations also aid in the maintenance of immunity that would have waned a long time since the childhood doses.

Dr Panda adds, “Vaccines, as exemplified by the flu shot, Tdap, and the shingles vaccine, then become very relevant during adulthood. Such immunizations have a significant advantage they offer to adults, particularly in the prevention of serious complications from diseases that often result in dire conditions leading to hospitalization among those with chronic conditions.”

Vaccines, in older adults, become all the more important in protecting against diseases that hit hard at this age. These include pneumonia, shingles, and influenza. Immunizations at this stage not only help protect the individual but also help prevent contagious diseases from spreading to populations who are more vulnerable.

Staying up to date with vaccinations at all stages of life protects not only our family members but also ourselves and the community from a number of preventable diseases. It remains one of the most critical aspects of a healthy, long-lasting life and contributes to public health in general.