Life-course immunization as a gateway to health

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Extending the benefits of vaccination against infectious diseases from childhood throughout the entire life-span is becoming an increasingly urgent priority in view of the world’s aging population, emergence and reemergence of infectious diseases, and the necessity to invest more on prevention versus cure in global healthcare.

Areas covered: This perspective discusses how life-course immunization could benefit human health at all stages of life. To achieve this, the current vaccination paradigm should be changed and all stakeholders have a role to play.

Expert commentary: To enhance immunization confidence in the population, it is essential that stakeholders eliminate complacency toward infectious diseases, improve vaccination convenience, remove barriers among different healthcare specialties, and address prevention as a single entity. They must also consider societal and cultural mindsets by understanding and including public viewpoints. A new “4Cs’ model encompassing convenience, confidence, complacency, and cultural acceptance is proposed to convert ‘vaccine availability’ to ‘vaccination acceptance’ throughout life. Life-course vaccination should become the new social norm of a healthy life-style, along with a healthy diet, adequate physical exercise, and not smoking. We are ‘all in’ to make life-course immunization a gateway for all people to lead longer, healthier lives.

KEYWORDS:

• Healthy aging
• life-course immunization
• maternal immunization
• prevention
• public health
• vaccine confidence
• vaccination behaviors

Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank T. Mark Doherty (GSK, Belgium) for the critical review of the manuscript. They also thank Business & Decision Life Sciences platform for editorial assistance and manuscript coordination, on behalf of GSK. Vincent Laporte coordinated manuscript development and editorial support. Writing assistance was provided by Dr. Julie Harriague (4Clinics, France), on behalf of GSK.

Declaration of interest

R.K. Philip received educational grants and honoraria from Merck MSD and the GSK group of companies for activities outside the submitted work. K. Attwell received travel, accommodation, and registration support from the GSK group of companies as an invited speaker at the ESPID 2017 symposium. T. Breuer and A. Di Pasquale are employees of the GSK group of companies and hold shares in the GSK group of companies. P.L. Lopalco received educational grants from Pfizer and the GSK group of companies, and honoraria from Sanofi and Merck MSD for activities outside the submitted work. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

Reviewer disclosures

Peer reviewers on this manuscript have no relevant financial or other relationships to disclose.

Authors’ contributions

All authors provided substantial scientific input, reviewed the literature, contributed to the writing, and reviewed the manuscript. All authors gave their final approval and are accountable for all aspects of the work.

Additional information

Funding

This work (including medical writing support) was supported by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals S.A.