Global/African Vaccination Week, 24 - 30 April

Make a healthy choice, get vaccinating

At the Government Employees Medical Scheme (GEMS) we encourage our members to take control of their health by ensuring they immunise themselves and their children. Global/African Vaccination Week is held 24-30 March and this article forms part of the GEMS commitment to providing our members with information and support in order to help them live a healthy life.

What are vaccinations?
Vaccinations are a way of creating immunity to certain diseases by using small amounts of killed or weakened viruses or bacteria that cause a particular disease.

Immunisation by vaccine is produced by the introduction of a dead or weakened form of this organism into the body. The immune system is simulated to respond by producing antibodies to thwart any future infections of the same disease.

Why teenagers and adults should get vaccinated?

WebMD lists the following reasons:

• Although you might have received a vaccine as a child against a range of diseases not all vaccines offer life-long protection for diseases like whooping cough or tetanus, which is usually given with the diphtheria vaccine. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggests that once you turn 19 you should visit your clinic for a diphtheria booster every ten years.
• It protects your children - especially babies too young for vaccines, such as the flu vaccine.
• Certain vaccines are only for teenagers and adults, such as the human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation for cervical cancer, which is administered to teenage girls before becoming sexually active and the shingles vaccine, which is only given to adults. Shingles is caused by a reactivation of the chickenpox virus and the risk for shingles increases as a person ages.
• To prevent contracting diseases while travelling. These are illnesses such as yellow fever which you may never have come in contact with unless you travel. They are prevalent in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and tropical South America.
• You were not immunised as a child or skipped certain vaccines. If you did not get vaccines for measles, mumps, and rubella or chickenpox you need them as an adult to avoid becoming infertile as a result of contracting diseases, such as mumps.
• Certain vaccinations were not available until recently - these include the HPV and shingles vaccine, which was only approved in 2006.
• You're sexually active with multiple partners. In this case the hepatitis B vaccine is highly recommended. Hepatitis B can be transmitted from person to person through contact with blood, semen, and vaginal fluid. It is 50-100 times easier to be infected by hepatitis B than HIV. Your partner may not appear ill, but could be carrying the disease.
• Your immune system is compromised due to a poor diet or excessive alcohol intake. In such cases the pneumococcal vaccine could help prevent diseases, such as pneumonia, meningitis, and blood infection caused by the bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae.

Types of vaccines for teenagers and adults

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

References
WebMD: http://www.webmd.com/vaccines/features/why-adults-need-vaccines
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/schedules/hcp/imz/adult.html