India’s success story in pediatric vaccination program should be further replicated in adult vaccination: Experts
India’s success story in pediatric vaccination programme should be further replicated in the form of adult vaccination programme, experts recommended on the occasion of the 2nd edition of the India Vaccine Leaders Conclave (IVLC) held between August 22 and August 23, 2023 under the theme “Building Resilient Vaccine Ecosystems” in Mumbai.
Currently approximately 8% of the Indian population is above 65 years of age. It is increasing and estimated to be 19% by 2050.
India is doing well in public health intervention in the pediatric vaccination program. Moving forward, high burden of vaccine preventable diseases (VPDs), increasing elderly population, immunosenescence and emerging drug resistance are important areas of consideration as vaccines are one of the most effective and cost-efficient medical technologies ever developed.
“Strategy for life course vaccination could be one such concrete step in the right direction. Success of strategizing can be seen in the childhood vaccination programme and Covid-19 drive which is amongst the best performing government health programs in the world. India has the World’s largest cohort of 26.5 million infants and 29 million pregnant women covering 12 VPDs under 5 years of age and mothers. The coverage improved 35% in 1992 to 78% in 2021 moving towards 90% in 2022-23. There has been a significant reduction in child mortality and hospitalization under 5 years of age. India is also targeting Measles and Rubella eradication by 2023. Real Time tracking mechanism and introduction of U-WIN app for vaccine registration, tracking and monitoring are progressive steps going forward,” informed Nitin Jain, senior general manager, Zydus Life Sciences (Vaccines) while speaking on the subject of “Vaccine Landscape in India and Role of Life Course Immunization in reducing vaccine-preventable disease”.
India falls in the intermediate endemicity zone for Hepatitis B (prevalence of 2 to 7%, with an average of 4%), with a disease burden of about 50 million across the age group. In India, cervical cancer contributes to approximately 6% to 29% of all cancers in women. A total of 127 092 Influenza-associated respiratory and circulatory deaths across all age groups occur annually in India. The overall sero-prevalence of dengue virus (DENV) infection in India was 48.7%, increasing from 28.3% among children aged 5 to 8 years to 41 % among children aged 9 to 17 years and 56.2% among individuals aged between 18 to 45 years. Pneumococcal as the most common clinical syndrome associated with Invasive Pneumococcal Disease (IPD) account for approximately 39% and 24% of IPD cases, high death cases and hospitalizations reported in adults.
“Vaccines which are available for diseases like Influenza, pneumococcus and Zoster have increased protection against this VPD, especially among the elderly. Usefulness on influenza vaccines in the prevention of cardiovascular events, reduced severity and hospitalization in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), Asthma and Influenza like illness are well documented, hepatitis B vaccines for prevention of hepatocellular carcinoma and HPV vaccine against cervical cancer have shown appreciating results world-wide. Few studies have suggested vaccinations indirectly affect antimicrobial infections by preventing viral infections especially in the case of Influenza vaccines which have been able to prevent secondary bacterial superinfections and antibiotic use by 13% to 64%. One among the most indirectly related benefits of life-course vaccination is the reduction in the estimated economic cost related to treating a disease which can be simply prevented with vaccination,” Jain further added.
“Covid-19 vaccination is a reminder that there are benefits of vaccines across all age groups, mainly for the adult population. Health policymakers in India should evaluate and institutionalize mechanisms to examine the need for adult vaccination. They should empower adult citizens to make informed choices on whether they wish to get currently available vaccines. It is time to plan for and expand the benefits of vaccines, for all age groups as part of the life course vaccination strategy in India for the deserving high risk population,” he concluded.
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