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Adult Vaccinations: Front Shop Module 2, 2022
It is becoming increasingly important for teenagers and adults to be vaccinated or
receive boosters because there is a weakening of protection from some vaccines
given during childhood.
Vaccines play a very important role throughout life, starting from before the baby is
even born, right up to the elderly. In some cases, vaccinating one group of people
helps to protect another group. For example, some vaccines are given to pregnant
women to protect the babies and vaccinating young children can indirectly protect
the elderly.
Throughout the world, vaccination has played an important role in improving the
health of children, especially those under the age of five years. Unfortunately, the
protection provided by some vaccines given in childhood is not long lasting and gets
weaker with age. This has resulted in many more infections occurring in adults,
especially the elderly. A study has shown that in the United States of America in
2006, 200 children died from infections that could have been prevented by
vaccination, while more than 70,000 adults died from these infections.
South Africans are very fortunate to have access to many vaccines that can help to
prevent diseases. Unfortunately, most of these vaccines are not yet widely used by
adults and adolescents as the importance of them is not really understood by the
public. Most people accept that babies and young children should have vaccines but
then don’t think about them after that. Vaccine-preventable diseases can occur at
any stage of life and can be more serious in adults and the elderly.
Front shop healthcare workers have the ideal opportunity to discuss the value of
vaccines with their customers as they are often the first point of contact with
customers. This module explains which vaccinations are important to have during
adolescence, pregnancy and adulthood as well as which special groups of people
should be protected by having the appropriate vaccinations.
