As Taiwan is soon to become a super-aged society, health experts yesterday encourage adults, especially people aged 65 or older, to ensure they are up to date regarding recommended vaccines.
Health experts were invited to speak at the Adult Immunization and Healthy Aging session of the Taiwan-UK Innovation for Longevity and Future Health Forum held by the British Chamber of Commerce in Taipei yesterday.
Lee Ping-ing (李秉穎), chair of the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, said that while vaccination is important throughout a person’s life, many people have a misconception that only children need to get vaccinated.
Photo: Lee I-chia, Taipei Times.
Showing data from last year, he said that while all APEC economies recommend immunization schedules for children, only 67 percent of them have recommendations for all age groups, and although often neglected, adults also need to be vaccinated against preventable diseases.
In addition to recommended immunization schedules for children and adolescents, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has a list of recommended vaccines for adults, categorized into four age groups: 19 to 26, 27 to 49, 50 to 64 and 65 or older.
Streptococcus pneumoniae is a common infection among young children and older adults, but the fatality rate among people over the age of 65 is much higher, as many of them have comorbidities, so the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine for all adults aged 65 or older, Lee said, adding that Taiwan began recommending and funding the vaccine this year.
The incidence rate of herpes zoster, or shingles, increases with age, and about one in three people get it during their lifetime, he said.
As an effective inactivated recombinant vaccine has been developed for shingles, the US recommends that people aged 50 or older and people who are 18 or older with certain risk factors get the vaccine, he said.
Showing CDC data, Lee said that the risk of severe influenza complications increases with age, with people over the age of 65, especially those with comorbidities, having the highest risk.
However, of those eligible for government-funded flu vaccines, people in that age group have one of the lowest vaccine coverage rates, he said.
A survey found that the main reason people hesitate to get vaccinated is because they are worried about its safety, Lee said, adding that many of their concerns are a result of exaggerated claims and misinformation, so effective communication strategies are important to raise awareness about adult vaccination.
Moreover, policymakers and the private sector must learn the importance of vaccination to secure sufficient vaccination policy funding, as it is now largely dependent on tobacco tax and a very small proportion of the government’s healthcare budget, Lee said.
Many individuals and entrepreneurs tend to donate to religious entities, charities, cancer research or other causes, but seldom to vaccination programs, he added.
National Center for Geriatrics and Welfare Research CEO Hsu Chih-cheng (許志成) said repeated communication is crucial to increase peoples’ health literacy and help them develop healthy habits.
Providing easy access can also increase the willingness of elderly people to get vaccinated, he said, citing the example of local health department’s using mobile vaccination units to set up pop-up clinics at temples to help elderly people who live in rural areas and usually need others to drive them to hospitals to get vaccinated.
South Korean K-pop girl group Blackpink are to make Kaohsiung the first stop on their Asia tour when they perform at Kaohsiung National Stadium on Oct. 18 and 19, the event organizer said yesterday. The upcoming performances will also make Blackpink the first girl group ever to perform twice at the stadium. It will be the group’s third visit to Taiwan to stage a concert. The last time Blackpink held a concert in the city was in March 2023. Their first concert in Taiwan was on March 3, 2019, at NTSU Arena (Linkou Arena). The group’s 2022-2023 “Born Pink” tour set a
The Sports Administration yesterday demanded an apology from the national table tennis association for barring 17-year-old Yeh Yi-tian (葉伊恬) from competing in the upcoming World Table Tennis (WTT) United States Smash tournament in Las Vegas this July. The sports agency said in a statement that the Chinese Taipei Table Tennis Association (CTTTA) must explain to the public why it withdrew Yeh from the WTT tournament in Las Vegas. The sports agency said it contacted the association to express its disapproval of the decision-making process after receiving a complaint from Yeh’s coach, Chuang
The Taiwan High Court yesterday upheld a lower court’s decision that ruled in favor of former president Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) regarding the legitimacy of her doctoral degree. The issue surrounding Tsai’s academic credentials was raised by former political talk show host Dennis Peng (彭文正) in a Facebook post in June 2019, when Tsai was seeking re-election. Peng has repeatedly accused Tsai of never completing her doctoral dissertation to get a doctoral degree in law from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) in 1984. He subsequently filed a declaratory action charging that
The Hualien Branch of the High Court today sentenced the main suspect in the 2021 fatal derailment of the Taroko Express to 12 years and six months in jail in the second trial of the suspect for his role in Taiwan’s deadliest train crash. Lee Yi-hsiang (李義祥), the driver of a crane truck that fell onto the tracks and which the the Taiwan Railways Administration's (TRA) train crashed into in an accident that killed 49 people and injured 200, was sentenced to seven years and 10 months in the first trial by the Hualien District Court in 2022. Hoa Van Hao, a
RSS