Time to think about flu shots and pneumonia vaccine

It's been so hot (in the midwest), you've probably not thought much about flu season or pneumonia. Most of the churches and many of the large supermarkets around here are offering flu shots for older and at risk people. I know there are those who think vaccines are part of some sort of conspiracy cabal (just who this bad element conspiring to kill us with vaccines is, I'm not sure--but I think they drink the Kool-Aid with the Princess Diana conspiracy folks). With the bad news about hospital acquired infections, I would think you would want something preventative to keep you or your elderly parents out. Maybe they won't die of pneumonia, but they might acquire something else really ugly.

"Among patients hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia, those who had previously received the pneumococcal vaccine had a lower risk of death and admission to the intensive care unit than patients who were not vaccinated, according to a report in the Oct. 8 issue of Archives of Internal Medicine 2007; 167(18):1938-1943, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Streptococcus pneumoniae, one of the causes of pneumonia--23-valent polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine (PPV)--has been available since 1983. Most guidelines recommend PPV for those at high risk of developing pneumonia, including older adults and nursing home residents."

In this study of nearly 3,500 patients in Canada, "22 percent had been vaccinated with PPV, and 624 died or were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU). Those who had been vaccinated with PPV were less likely to die or be admitted to the ICU than those who had not been vaccinated (10 percent vs. 21 percent). This finding was mostly a result of lower ICU admissions--less than 1 percent of those vaccinated were admitted to the ICU, compared with 13 percent of those who were not vaccinated. Results were similar when the researchers looked only at patients older than 65 or those living in nursing homes--groups for whom universal PPV vaccination is recommended." [from Newswire via JAMA ]