Smokers Should Be Vaccinated For Pneumonia, Panel Advises

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Main Category: Smoking / Quit Smoking
Also Included In: Respiratory / Asthma;  Public Health;  Immune System / Vaccines
Article Date: 24 Oct 2008 - 9:00 PDT

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An expert panel is advising the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to add adult smokers to the list of people that should be vaccinated against bacteria that cause pneumonia, meningitis and other diseases.

Currently the US federal agency recommendation for vaccination against pneumonia includes children the elderly, and other vulnerable groups, but a meeting in Atlanta earlier this week of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) concluded that adult smokers should be added to the list because they have a higher risk of lung and respiratory infection.

This is the first time an advisory panel has recommended a vaccine only for smokers.

According to a report in WebMD, the CDC currently advises the following groups to receive pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine:

• All persons aged 65 and over.
• All persons aged 2 and over with weak immune systems, for instance people undergoing chemotherapy or infected with HIV.
• All persons aged 2 and older who have chronic medical conditions such as diabetes, kidney or lung disease, alcoholism, heart disease.
• People who don't have a spleen or it doesn't function, and anyone who has sickle cell disease.

According to Reuters, CDC spokesman Curtis Allen said in an email that the advisory panel had recommended smokers between 19 and 64 years of age should also receive pneumococcal vaccines.

"The committee also recommended smokers who receive pneumococcal vaccine also undergo stop smoking counseling," he added.

The ACIP has previously recommended that starting in 2009, adults who have asthma should receive pneumococcal vaccines.

Pneumonia is a common complication of flu, especially in the elderly, and is thought to be the main cause of the 36,000 deaths a year that result from the flu.

The Associated Press reported that a CDC scientist said it was not clear why smokers were more susceptible, but some experts suggest it could be something to do with the damage that smoking does to lung and throat tissue that allows the bacteria to get a foothold and then cause infection.

Over 20 per cent of adult Americans are smokers (about 31 million adults), and the risk of contracting a pneumococcal disease increases the longer a person remains a smoker and the more cigarettes they smoke. More than 24 cigarettes a day increases the risk of getting a pneumococcal disease by over 5 times: even smoking one cigarette a day doubles the risk, reports WebMD.

About half of otherwise healthy adults who get seriously ill with pneumococcal infections are smokers.

Sources: Reuters, WebMD, Associated Press.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD.


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