New care home residents should be given an additional pneumonia jab when they move in to reduce deaths from a deadly bacterial lung infection, experts have said.
A major study suggests that a second dose of a pneumococcal vaccine – targeting the bacteria that causes pneumonia and other serious illnesses – could prevent up to 80 per cent of deaths from invasive pneumococcal disease in care home settings.
It would be far more effective than the current NHS policy of offering a single dose of the jab to all adults when they turn 65, according to the research.
Pneumonia is contagious, and while anyone can catch it, babies and the elderly are most at risk of being badly affected.
Over-65s in the UK are usually jabbed with Pneumovax 23, which is usually given just once (stock photo)
LIFE-THREATENING: A 3D scan of lungs affected by pneumonia
Studies show over-65s are ten times more likely to end up in hospital with pneumonia than those aged 18-50.
In the new study, led by the UK Health Security Agency, scientists analysed health data from more than 120,000 people newly admitted to care homes.
They compared the impact of giving this group either the 23-valent pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine (PPV23) or the newer, more effective 20-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV20) when they moved in – alongside routine vaccination – and tracked potential cases and deaths prevented over five years.
They found that giving the PCV20 jab to new residents would prevent 75 per cent of serious pneumococcal infections and 80 per cent of related deaths.
The PPV23 vaccine would prevent 36 per cent of infections and 48 per cent of deaths.
By contrast, the current single-dose programme for the general population at 65 was found to prevent just a fraction of the number of deaths per dose.
‘Protecting older adults, especially those in care facilities, from infectious diseases is necessary to reduce morbidity and mortality,’ Dr Claire von Mollendorf, a vaccine expert at the University of Melbourne, wrote in The Lancet.
‘Vaccination, including against pneumococcus, is an effective way to promote healthy ageing.’
