Adults tend to focus on getting children immunized for best health. However, adults also need certain immunizations. You’re never too old for vaccines.
Dr. Stephanie Fosback, an internal medicine physician at Palouse Medical, discusses which vaccines should be on your radar as an adult.
Selected Podcast
Adult Vaccinations: Yes, Adults Need Them Too
Featuring:
Stephanie Fosback, MD
Dr. Stephanie Fosback completed her general internal medicine training at the University of Washington. She was a standout in medical school and residency, receiving awards for patient care and support of her peers. She teaches medical students and has received the Resident Excellence in Teaching Award for two years. In addition, she was nominated for a physician excellence award at Pullman Regional Hospital. Transcription:
Bill Klaproth: (Host): Immunizations are considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the twentieth century, but there are still segments of the population that skip regular vaccinations and don't understand how important they are. Here to talk with us about why immunizations are a good idea for your overall health is Dr. Stephanie Fosback, an Internist with Pullman Regional Hospital. Dr. Fosback, thanks for your time. So why is it important to get immunizations at any age?
Dr. Stephanie Fosback, MD (Guest): As we age, we get different exposures and we have different risk related to those exposures, and also different risks related to certain illnesses. When we're young we have high risk for childhood illnesses, things like measles, and mumps, and rubella. Haemophilus influenzae can be life-threatening for our children and we are very fortunate to live in a time- or I feel very fortunate to live in a time where my children are protected by vaccines.
And then as we age, things like pneumonia and shingles can impact us more and more, and it's very important if we can prevent those illnesses, prevent not only how ill those illnesses can make us, for example the flu, but also prevent things like chronic pain from shingles is very important.
Bill: Well thank you for sharing those with us, Dr. Fosback. And you said something interesting there. Sometimes vaccinations are for short-term and some are for long-term. Is it the long-term vaccinations that people seem to miss or forget about or just kind of put off?
Dr. Fosback: You know, most of my patients don't put their vaccines off because most of my patients that I care for come from generations where they've seen things like measles, and mumps, and polio. So most of my patients don't put off their vaccines, and most of them do recognize the importance of vaccinations.
I think we all have a tendency to forget the severity of some of these illnesses, especially those of us who've been fortunate enough to live in a time where we didn't have a lot of these childhood illnesses, and we didn't have exposure and death related to them. So I think people put it off partially because they fear the vaccine more than they fear the illnesses, which is unfortunate, and the vaccines are incredibly safe, and we need to get them both for short-term benefit and for long-term benefit.
Bill: Well that makes sense, and it is a shame if someone is more concerned about the initial shot than the good that that vaccination can do for them. So let me ask you this then. How does your history of childhood vaccines impact your need to get vaccinations as an adult?
Dr. Fosback: That's a tough question because it very much depends on the patient. If someone was never vaccinated for childhood illnesses, we do recommend that they get vaccinated, but for which illnesses depends a lot on their health history.
Bill: Okay, and how about booster shots then? What about those, and when would somebody need them?
Dr. Fosback: And it depends on the vaccine. Let's talk about tetanus boosters, because I think that's what people think the most about. Tetanus boosters should be given about every ten years, and that's because our immunity - what our body builds up to fight infection - sort of decreases or wanes over time. Flu shot boosters should be given every year, and that's because the flu that we get exposed to every year changes. And then there's a number of other shots that require boosters but most vaccines from childhood do not.
Bill: Dr. Fosback, on TV there is a commercial about the shingles vaccine. I know you mentioned that earlier. Give us a little more in depth explanation of the shingles vaccine and the virus. What do we need to know about that?
Dr. Fosback: You know, one thing that I hear a lot in my practice is that flu shots cause the flu. That's a myth that I hear a lot. Certainly somebody with a low grade temperature, an achy arm or they can feel a little bit malaise for a few days, but that's not the same thing as getting influenza. Influenza, or the flu, can cause several weeks of muscle aches, high fever, life-threatening respiratory illness, and so definitely if the flu shot is accurate, and that's always a guess from our wonderful Center for Disease Control, but if the flu shot is accurate, or even should offer some protection, it's better and safer than getting influenza.
Bill: I see on TV a lot about the shingles vaccination. Is shingles something we should be concerned about as we age?
Dr. Fosback: Yeah, so as we- so when we're young, if we are exposed to the chicken pox virus, which most of us were up until- there is now a chicken pox vaccine that children receive. We are at risk of developing a painful rash called shingles. That virus lives in our body our entire life and it can re-activate as a shingles virus. The shingles vaccine can help reduce our risk of getting shingles by a significant amount, and there's a new shingles vaccine that's much more effective and much safer than the previous shingles vaccine. It's two shots two to six months apart, and it's recommended for all individuals who are fifty and over, and people should ask their doctor if they have immune conditions that might make them higher risk for the vaccine, but for the most part it's recommended for all individuals over fifty.
Bill: And Dr. Fosback, are there other common vaccinations that adults ignore or just don't know about? And what are the most important vaccinations people should consider as they age?
Dr. Fosback: So I would say every year getting a flu shot, making sure your tetanus vaccine is up-to-date, certainly the shingles vaccine as you mentioned. Probably the most important vaccine for individuals, everybody who's over sixty-five and other individuals with other conditions like lung conditions or conditions that impair their immune system should be getting what's called the pneumococcal vaccine, and there's two of those to help prevent severity and illness related to pneumococcal pneumonia. And then if people haven't had their hepatitis A and B vaccine and they have exposure risk to those vaccines, they should also get those.
Bill: And wrapping it up for us, Dr. Fosback, is there any other thing we should know about vaccinations?
Dr. Fosback: You know, there aren't many things in medicine that haven't changed over a hundred years, and vaccines really haven't changed. And so they are safe, they've been around for a long time and I want people to know that their doctors and the Center for Disease Control, we have everybody's best interest in mind. The entire community will do better, our entire world will do better if we all get our vaccines as recommended.
Bill: So true. Well, Dr. Fosback, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. For more information, visit www.PullmanRegional.org. That's www.PullmanRegional.org. This is The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm Bill Klaproth, thanks for listening.
Bill Klaproth: (Host): Immunizations are considered one of the greatest public health achievements of the twentieth century, but there are still segments of the population that skip regular vaccinations and don't understand how important they are. Here to talk with us about why immunizations are a good idea for your overall health is Dr. Stephanie Fosback, an Internist with Pullman Regional Hospital. Dr. Fosback, thanks for your time. So why is it important to get immunizations at any age?
Dr. Stephanie Fosback, MD (Guest): As we age, we get different exposures and we have different risk related to those exposures, and also different risks related to certain illnesses. When we're young we have high risk for childhood illnesses, things like measles, and mumps, and rubella. Haemophilus influenzae can be life-threatening for our children and we are very fortunate to live in a time- or I feel very fortunate to live in a time where my children are protected by vaccines.
And then as we age, things like pneumonia and shingles can impact us more and more, and it's very important if we can prevent those illnesses, prevent not only how ill those illnesses can make us, for example the flu, but also prevent things like chronic pain from shingles is very important.
Bill: Well thank you for sharing those with us, Dr. Fosback. And you said something interesting there. Sometimes vaccinations are for short-term and some are for long-term. Is it the long-term vaccinations that people seem to miss or forget about or just kind of put off?
Dr. Fosback: You know, most of my patients don't put their vaccines off because most of my patients that I care for come from generations where they've seen things like measles, and mumps, and polio. So most of my patients don't put off their vaccines, and most of them do recognize the importance of vaccinations.
I think we all have a tendency to forget the severity of some of these illnesses, especially those of us who've been fortunate enough to live in a time where we didn't have a lot of these childhood illnesses, and we didn't have exposure and death related to them. So I think people put it off partially because they fear the vaccine more than they fear the illnesses, which is unfortunate, and the vaccines are incredibly safe, and we need to get them both for short-term benefit and for long-term benefit.
Bill: Well that makes sense, and it is a shame if someone is more concerned about the initial shot than the good that that vaccination can do for them. So let me ask you this then. How does your history of childhood vaccines impact your need to get vaccinations as an adult?
Dr. Fosback: That's a tough question because it very much depends on the patient. If someone was never vaccinated for childhood illnesses, we do recommend that they get vaccinated, but for which illnesses depends a lot on their health history.
Bill: Okay, and how about booster shots then? What about those, and when would somebody need them?
Dr. Fosback: And it depends on the vaccine. Let's talk about tetanus boosters, because I think that's what people think the most about. Tetanus boosters should be given about every ten years, and that's because our immunity - what our body builds up to fight infection - sort of decreases or wanes over time. Flu shot boosters should be given every year, and that's because the flu that we get exposed to every year changes. And then there's a number of other shots that require boosters but most vaccines from childhood do not.
Bill: Dr. Fosback, on TV there is a commercial about the shingles vaccine. I know you mentioned that earlier. Give us a little more in depth explanation of the shingles vaccine and the virus. What do we need to know about that?
Dr. Fosback: You know, one thing that I hear a lot in my practice is that flu shots cause the flu. That's a myth that I hear a lot. Certainly somebody with a low grade temperature, an achy arm or they can feel a little bit malaise for a few days, but that's not the same thing as getting influenza. Influenza, or the flu, can cause several weeks of muscle aches, high fever, life-threatening respiratory illness, and so definitely if the flu shot is accurate, and that's always a guess from our wonderful Center for Disease Control, but if the flu shot is accurate, or even should offer some protection, it's better and safer than getting influenza.
Bill: I see on TV a lot about the shingles vaccination. Is shingles something we should be concerned about as we age?
Dr. Fosback: Yeah, so as we- so when we're young, if we are exposed to the chicken pox virus, which most of us were up until- there is now a chicken pox vaccine that children receive. We are at risk of developing a painful rash called shingles. That virus lives in our body our entire life and it can re-activate as a shingles virus. The shingles vaccine can help reduce our risk of getting shingles by a significant amount, and there's a new shingles vaccine that's much more effective and much safer than the previous shingles vaccine. It's two shots two to six months apart, and it's recommended for all individuals who are fifty and over, and people should ask their doctor if they have immune conditions that might make them higher risk for the vaccine, but for the most part it's recommended for all individuals over fifty.
Bill: And Dr. Fosback, are there other common vaccinations that adults ignore or just don't know about? And what are the most important vaccinations people should consider as they age?
Dr. Fosback: So I would say every year getting a flu shot, making sure your tetanus vaccine is up-to-date, certainly the shingles vaccine as you mentioned. Probably the most important vaccine for individuals, everybody who's over sixty-five and other individuals with other conditions like lung conditions or conditions that impair their immune system should be getting what's called the pneumococcal vaccine, and there's two of those to help prevent severity and illness related to pneumococcal pneumonia. And then if people haven't had their hepatitis A and B vaccine and they have exposure risk to those vaccines, they should also get those.
Bill: And wrapping it up for us, Dr. Fosback, is there any other thing we should know about vaccinations?
Dr. Fosback: You know, there aren't many things in medicine that haven't changed over a hundred years, and vaccines really haven't changed. And so they are safe, they've been around for a long time and I want people to know that their doctors and the Center for Disease Control, we have everybody's best interest in mind. The entire community will do better, our entire world will do better if we all get our vaccines as recommended.
Bill: So true. Well, Dr. Fosback, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. For more information, visit www.PullmanRegional.org. That's www.PullmanRegional.org. This is The Health Podcast from Pullman Regional. I'm Bill Klaproth, thanks for listening.