MCMS Physician Winter 2017 - 18

mon t m e d s o c .c om

A Potential Economic Burden:

Adult Vaccine-Preventable Diseases in the US
BY VALERIE ARKOOSH, MD, MPH
MONTGOMERY COUNTY COMMISSIONER

he Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention
(CDC) has identified
vaccination as one of the 10 great
public health achievements of the
20th century in the United States.
Unfortunately many adults remain
unvaccinated.
Adults are 100 times more likely than a child to die
from a vaccine-preventable disease in the U.S. Vaccinepreventable diseases claim the lives of approximately 500
children and about 50,000 adults each year. Vaccinepreventable illness is low among children due to high
vaccination rates and effective vaccines. Our immunization
programs have been very successful with kids but we're
not doing so well with adults. Despite the CDC's
recommendation of 10 vaccines, which protect against
14 pathogens for adults, adult immunization rates are
unacceptably low. For example, only 42 percent of adults
aged 18 and older received their influenza vaccine in the
2015-2016 flu season.
The most recognized benefits of vaccination are the
reduction of morbidity and mortality. However, a recent
peer-reviewed study published in Health Affairs found that
low immunization uptake by adults also places a significant
economic burden on the U.S. They estimated the economic
burden in a single year (2015) to be approximately $9 billion
from vaccine-preventable diseases related to the 10 vaccines
recommended by the CDC for adults aged 19 and older.
Eighty percent or $7.1 billion is attributed to unvaccinated
persons. The most costly vaccine-preventable disease is the
flu, which costs the country $5.79 billion. Recognizing the
economic burden is an important factor when considering
public health spending decisions and implementing
methods to increase adult immunization rates.

Reference- Modeling The Economic Burden Of Adult VaccinePreventable Diseases In The United States
Sachiko Ozawa, Allison Portnoy, Hiwote Getaneh, Samantha Clark,
Maria Knoll, David Bishai, H. Keri Yang and Pallavi D. Patwardhan
Health Affairs 35, no.11 (2016):2124-2132
doi: 10.1377/hlthaff.2016.0462 originally published online October 12,
2016

The Montgomery County Health Department
(MCHD) is committed to improving adult vaccination
rates and reducing the number of missed opportunities
for vaccination. MCHD focuses its efforts on routine and
systematic offering of vaccines concentrating on disparate
and low-income populations, which have been shown
to have lower immunization rates. MCHD provides
adult vaccinations to uninsured individuals free of charge
in its health centers and runs a robust community flu
vaccination effort. This past flu season MCHD piloted an
initiative called "Vote & Vax." On Election Day, MCHD
held a community flu site at a polling location. MCHD
vaccinated 218 county residents-many may not have
received the flu vaccine otherwise.

M C M S P H Y S I C I A N 18 W I N T E R 2 0 1 7

https://www.montmedsoc.com/Pages/Home.aspx

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of MCMS Physician Winter 2017