Adults Need Protection Against Vaccine Preventable Diseases, Too

Main Category: Immune System / Vaccines
Also Included In: Infectious Diseases / Bacteria / Viruses;  Public Health
Article Date: 09 Apr 2008 - 0:00 PDT

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Protection against vaccine-preventable diseases is not only recommended for children. Adults, too, need protection. To make clinicians aware of the importance of complete and timely vaccination for their adult patients, The Journal of Family Practice has published a supplement to the April 2008 issue, Update on vaccine-preventable diseases: Are adults in your community adequately protected?

Based on a recently released update of the adult immunization schedule from The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the supplement is authored by William Schaffner, MD, Professor and Chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. The supplement discusses the benefits of immunization against 6 vaccine-preventable diseases that clinicians frequently encounter among adult patients: influenza, pneumococcal infections, herpes zoster, human papillomavirus, and hepatitis B.

"Increased physician awareness of the importance of complete and timely immunization of their patients can reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with vaccine-preventable diseases in adults," says Dr Schaffner.

Update on vaccine-preventable diseases: Are adults in your community adequately protected? is available on The Journal of Family Practice Website, http://www.jfponline.com.

The Journal of Family Practice, an indexed and peer-reviewed journal distributed to 96,000 family physicians, has collaborated with SciMed to publish this supplement, which was supported by an educational grant from Merck & Co., Inc.

Nurse practitioners and physician assistants can find this supplement on http://www.apctoday.com, an online resource for advanced practice clinicians.

The Journal of Family Practice is published by Dowden Health Media, a Division of Lebhar-Friedman, Inc. APCTODAY is copyrighted by Dowden Health Media, a Division of Lebhar-Friedman, Inc. Dowden Health Media is a full-service healthcare communications company that specializes in high-quality communication with physicians, advanced practice clinicians, and consumers. Its highly respected, peer-reviewed journals reach more than 300,000 physicians and clinicians in surgery, psychiatry, family practice, internal medicine and obstetrics/gynecology.

Dowden Health Media
http://www.dowdenhealth.com