MONDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) -- Although most parents ensure their children are vaccinated, adults often do not receive recommended vaccinations themselves, according to a new report, Adult Immunization: Shots to Save Lives.
The report was released earlier this month by the Trust for America's Health, the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The report details that 40,000 to 50,000 American adults die each year of diseases that vaccines could have prevented.
According to the report, adults bypass their vaccinations for several reasons. Those reasons include the following: most adults work in places that do not require vaccination; insurance does not always cover the cost of vaccination; many adults do not have insurance and cannot afford vaccines; many adults believe vaccines are not safe or effective; and vaccine production methods have not been updated.
"This country does not have an effective strategy for immunizing adults against infectious diseases," Jeffrey Levi, executive director of Trust for America's Health, said during a Feb. 4 teleconference. "Thousands of lives could be saved each year if we could increase the number of adults who receive routine and recommended vaccinations. We need a national strategy to make vaccines a regular part of medical care and to educate Americans about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines."
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