Adult immunization was a key focus of a noon hour address Monday at the Rotary Club.
Prairie North Health Region’s new medical health officer, Dr. Mandiangu Nsungu, was the featured speaker on the topic.
Nsungu has worked in public health in Canada for more than a decade.
Prior to that he spent several years practising medicine in Africa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia.
Immunization is already a prime focus for club members due to Rotary International’s work to combat polio around the world through mass-vaccination efforts.
But Nsungu’s presentation focused on the need for adults to immunize against a vast number of diseases, not just polio.
Among the vaccines Nsungu spoke about were ones such as diphtheria and tetanus, the shingles vaccine for people over age 60, the HPV vaccine to prevent cervical cancer, the measles vaccine for people born after 1970, as well as ones to prevent whooping cough, pneumonia and meningitis.
There were also travel vaccinations for such things as hepatitis A and hepatitis B. The vaccination types depends on destination. Those going to Africa might need the meningococcal vaccination, while those heading to Asia might need the Japanese encephalitis vaccine to ward off mosquito-borne diseases.
There were also the more typical vaccines against the flu, rabies, and other diseases.
The presentation was an eye-opener to Rotary members who typically associate immunization with childhood vaccinations.
“Very often, we tend to think immunizations are only for children,” said Nsungu. “But there are diseases that are more prevalent in adults than in children.”
As well, the immunity for certain vaccines, not all of them, may decrease, which means people will need to get booster shots.
“It’s an important issue but unfortunately it doesn’t get the attention that it needs,” said Nsungu.
He believes one reason could be the information doesn’t circulate among adults. Another issue is that unlike childhood vaccines, “most of adult vaccines are not publicly funded so people have to pay out of pocket,” said Dr. Nsungu.
Another issue, suggested in a question posed from the floor by a Rotary member, was the availability of records. “As children, all records are there, but for adults from a certain age it is very difficult to find reliable records.”
Dr. Nsungu advises people to consider vaccinations to protect themselves and those around them, and definitely recommended it to people planning to travel to far-away destinations. Those include familiar winter vacation getaway places where people could encounter diseases they might not find here.
“You’ll see that many of those diseases do not actually pose a big problem within Canada. But the world is a small village, a global village, so it’s very easy, actually, to bring those diseases into Canada. Of course, in that situation it will start being a problem with the person who brought them in and also it may be a problem with people around that person because those diseases may start spreading,” said Dr. Nsungu.
“So that’s extremely important. People must have it in mind that when they go for vacation they must also take their protection.”
