Vaccination calendar for adults. Check if you should get vaccinated

Doctors and epidemiologists discussed adult vaccination schedules on Tuesday at a conference at the National Institute of Public Health – National Research Institute (NIZP-PIB). The conference was organized on the occasion of the European Vaccination Week, celebrated under the slogan “Saving lives through vaccinations”. This year, experts point out that vaccinations do not only apply to children, but should accompany us throughout our lives because they protect against dangerous, preventable diseases.

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Ph.D. Ewa Augustynowicz from the Department of Epidemiology, Infectious Diseases and Surveillance of the NIZP-PIB reminded that the vaccination program, called the vaccination calendar in Poland, has been used in Poland since the 1960s and that most people associate it only with children. – We now know that vaccinating adults is just as important as vaccinating children, she said.

She emphasized that in the case of many infectious diseases, e.g. pneumococcal pneumonia or influenza, people who are not immunized adults are at greater risk of illness and complications from these infections than children. – We have a risk of death due to these diseases, which we can prevent by vaccinating adults – she emphasized. She reported that this risk among adults is almost a hundred times higher than among children.

Ph.D. Ewa Augustynowicz argues that taking vaccines should be treated as one of the activities of a healthy lifestyle, alongside such rules as: do not smoke, eat healthily, take care of healthy sleep and get enough exercise. – These are the elements that help us be healthy, improve the quality of our life and contribute to the extension of life – she said. She added that an adult should look at his or her vaccination history, fill in the gaps and perform supplementary vaccinations.

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Dr. Ilona Małecka from the Medical University of Poznań pointed out that although in the case of children, the vaccination schedule distinguishes between mandatory and recommended vaccinations, and vaccinations are only recommended among adults, they are no less important than mandatory vaccinations.

Who should get vaccinated? First of all, people with respiratory diseases, cardiac patients, patients with diabetes and rheumatological diseases.

Adult vaccination calendars prepared by the National Institute of Public Health are available available on the NIZP-PIB website.

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