U.S. adults missing out on protective vaccinations: CDC

Despite high childhood vaccination rates in the United States, the number of adults who get them immunized against a range of diseases is disappointingly low, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found.

Even with a concerted effort to raise adult immunization rates, the numbers of newly vaccinated are surprisingly low. The new CDC report found that:

• Only about 2 percent of Americans ages 60 and older received a vaccine against shingles in its first year of sales.

• About 2 percent of adults aged 18 to 64 got a booster shot against whooping cough in the two years since it hit the market.

• About 10 percent of women ages 18 to 26 have received at least one dose of a three-shot series that protects against the HPV, that causes cervical cancer.

Calling the results of the new study sobering, Dr. Anne Schuchat of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, "We really need to get beyond the mentality that vaccines are for kids. Vaccines are for everybody. We obviously have a lot more work to do."

However, though the biggest success was seen against influenza, over 68 percent of the citizens aged 65 and older got a flu shot last year, well below the targeted 90 person, the survey revealed.

Moreover adding trouble, the survey sponsors found that ‘most adults don't know much about vaccines available to protect them’.

Only 3 percent to 18 percent of those surveyed could name one or two diseases that could be prevented with a simple inoculation. Only one in 10 knew there was a hepatitis vaccine, only one in 20 knew about the shingles vaccine, the report states.

"Combined, these infectious diseases kill more Americans annually than either breast cancer, HIV/AIDS or traffic accidents," noted Dr. William Schaffner of Vanderbilt University, Tennessee.

According to the U.S. health authorities, it recommends adults to get shots to protect against chicken pox, diphtheria, hepatitis A, hepatitis B, the HPV, influenza, measles, meningitis, mumps, pertussis or whooping cough, pneumonia, rubella or German measles, shingles and tetanus.