Health expert backs elderly vaccine

IMPORTANT MESSAGE: Raina MacIntyre would like to see more emphasis placed on adult vaccinations. PHOTO/BEN FRASER

A leading Australian public health expert is in Rotorua to encourage GPs to consider placing a greater emphasis on vaccinating the elderly.

Professor Raina MacIntyre, who is the head of the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, was a key speaker at the NZMA General Practitioners conference currently taking place in the city.

Dr MacIntyre's address was around whether the focus of immunisation campaigns should move to adult immunisation.

She said doctors should consider recommending the pneumococcal vaccine to elderly patients. The vaccine became funded for elderly in Australia 10 years ago, but is not funded here.

Pneumococcal disease can cause pneumonia and invasive pneumococcal disease, including blood infection and meningitis (inflammation of the membranes covering the brain).

While vaccinations in older people could be less effective than in children, it was still worthwhile - especially with an ageing population and people retiring later, she said.

"They still have the potential to prevent a lot of disease."

Other vaccines that are valuable for older people include the influenza vaccine, which New Zealand is having success with, as well as vaccines for shingles and whooping cough.

Dr MacIntyre described vaccination as the "low hanging fruit" for healthy ageing.

She said in Australia they had seen deaths of elderly from whooping cough.

The Ministry of Health only funds the flu, tetanus and diphtheria for elderly in the schedule.

Dr MacIntyre's calls were backed by former New Zealand cricketer Martin Snedden, who spoke at the conference supporting the call for more GPs and their patients to discuss the role adult vaccinations had in "healthy ageing".

"I've been involved in sport and trying to stay healthy all my life. I want to live life to the full and not be held back by diseases. We know how important it is for children to be immunised but it's also important for grown-ups too. I agree we should ask our doctors which vaccinations are right for us at our stage in life."

Mr Snedden recently had first-hand experience of the suffering vaccine-preventable diseases can inflict when he had a bout of shingles.