The Worldwide Federation on Ageing (IFA) is proud to launch findings from a latest research entitled Driving the Agenda of Pneumococcal Pneumonia Vaccination in At-risk Populations in Neighborhood and Lengthy-term Care. The COVID-19 pandemic has uncovered the brutal nature and impression of respiratory infections on individuals of all ages and significantly amongst these at-risk of significant problems, similar to older adults in long-term care (LTC) settings. Although a number of respiratory infections and different vaccine-preventable ailments (VPDs) could be prevented, or their extreme signs diminished by receiving vaccines, present vaccination uptake charges for pneumococcal illness amongst older adults in LTC are under nationwide targets.

This research carried out by the IFA seemed on the standing of current public well being insurance policies and campaigns on pneumococcal illness in Canadian LTC settings and investigated the coverage gaps which have resulted in poor vaccine uptake. One of many major findings from this research is that inside LTC settings in Canada, vaccination insurance policies for pneumococcal illness are inconsistent, absent, or obscure throughout all provinces and territories and that even when they’re accessible, they don’t seem to be all the time accessible. This research additionally finds that public well being communication on pneumococcal vaccination of older adults in LTC settings is ineffective, as evident within the lack of understanding from long-term care suppliers and associations, older adults, and the general public.

Suggestions from this research name for a extra complete set of insurance policies that forestall older individuals in these settings from changing into prone to VPDs like pneumococcal illness. The next suggestions have been developed with the intention of incorporating intersecting disciplines and sectors to collaborate on and affect upstream coverage actions.

The primary set of suggestions name on the Authorities of Canada (Public Well being Company of Canada) to: take into account residents in LTC settings as a particular inhabitants group of older adults, to incorporate a suggestion within the overarching federal immunization technique primarily based on recommendation and course from the Nationwide Advisory Committee on Immunization (NACI), and to steer a dialogue with provinces and territories on pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine suggestions for residents in LTC settings. The second set of suggestions name on neighborhood and LTC suppliers to: enhance consciousness of the worth of pneumococcal vaccination as a part of the well being and wellbeing of residents in LTC settings, evaluate and the place acceptable revise insurance policies that mirror the place of the associations of LTC suppliers on routine immunization, and assist affect and form coverage (native, provincial, territorial and federal ranges) on routine immunization together with in opposition to pneumococcal illness as a mechanism to guard the suitable to well being of residents of LTC settings.

The findings and proposals on this report not solely assist deal with current gaps for pneumococcal vaccination coverage but additionally inform the much-needed improvement of efficient vaccination insurance policies for long-term care settings.” 

Mitali Mistry, Coverage and Mission Coordinator, IFA

The report on the Driving the Agenda of Pneumococcal Pneumonia Vaccination in At-risk Populations in Neighborhood and Lengthy-term Care research is now accessible on IFA’s Vaccines4Life web site: