Senior citizens aged 75 and over were advised yesterday to get vaccinated against seasonal influenza and streptococcus pneumonia.
Lin Hung-chuan (林鴻銓), a specialist in lung disease and diseases of the immune system at Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, issued the advice after a national inoculation program against seasonal flu began on Thursday.
The elderly are also entitled to free flu and pneumonia inoculations.
Lin said both the flu and the streptococcus vaccines were safe to receive in combination.
Lin said that while seasonal flu is not particularly dangerous in itself, it can cause complications such as pneumonia, which can be fatal.
Streptococcus pneumonia is the most frequently cause of death by pneumonia, Lin said, adding that the fatality rate among the elderly infected with the bacteria is 42.5 percent.
Moreover, the chance of a reoccurance is five times higher than that of contracting the disease for the first time, he said.
It was streptococcus pneumonia that prompted the late founder of the Formosa Plastics Group, Wang Yung-ching (王永慶), to donate 578,000 doses of streptococcus pneumonia vaccine in 2007 for people over 75, Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Deputy Director-General Chou Chih-hao (周志浩) said.
Chou said Wang made the donation after he caught the disease but recovered.
The free vaccination program was designed to be carried out over three years starting in 2007.
There are still about 40,000 doses left for this year, Chou said.
Wang’s foundation has also donated another 57,000 doses to increase stocks for this year, Chou said.
CDC statistics show that 1.01 million people aged 75 and over live in Taiwan, 470,000 of whom have not yet been inoculated with the pneumonia vaccine, which offers protection for five years.
Meanwhile, the Central Epidemic Command Center reported yesterday that a 12-year old has been hospitalized with severe influenza A(H1N1) symptoms, bringing the total number of hospitalization cases to 320 since the outbreak began.
Of that number, 21 had died and 28 are still being treated in hospitals.
In related news, the US will begin its massive vaccination campaign against A(H1N1) today, with the first distribution of 600,000 vaccine doses.
The US expects to quickly dispense between 6 million and 7 million doses and hopes to administer 250 million doses by the end of the year.
RSS