Take 6: Who needs more frequent pneumococcal vaccination?

All adults are recommended to be vaccinated against pneumococcal at age 65, but patients with risk factors need additional doses

All adults are recommended to be vaccinated against pneumococcal at 65 years of age but patients with risk factors need additional doses.

Associate Professor Kristine Macartney, a paediatric infectious disease specialist and the deputy director at The National Centre for Immuisation Research & Surveillance, explains the complexities of pneumococcal vaccination in the following video.

[media_embed] https://player.vimeo.com/video/198954390 [/media_embed]

“The pneumococcal recommendations in the Australian Immunisation Handbook are quite complex,” she says.

“There is a recommendation for all people to receive a dose of the polysaccharide pneumococcal vaccine at 65 years of age. And if you don’t have any other risk factors, it’s just the only dose of that vaccine.

“For people who have various risk factors, [such as] chronic heart or lung disease, immunocompromising conditions, even smokers – they are recommended to have an additional dose at around age 70 of the polysaccharide vaccine.”

The Handbook now recommends that people with additional risk factors first receive the conjugate pneumococcal vaccine, which is normally used in children in the schedule of two, four and six months.