Adult immunization practices, challenges and opportunities in Central America and the Caribbean: Advisory board proceedings

ABSTRACT

As individuals age, they become increasingly prone to infectious diseases, many of which are vaccine-preventable diseases (VPDs). Adult immunization has become a public health priority in the modern era, yet VPDs vaccination rates for adults are low worldwide. In Central America and Caribbean, national recommendations and vaccination practices in adults differ across countries, and adult vaccination coverage data are limited. An advisory board comprised infectious disease experts, pulmonologists, geriatricians, occupational health, and public health professionals for Central America and Dominican Republic was convened to: a) describe adult immunization practices in these countries; b) discuss challenges and barriers to adult vaccination; and c) find strategies to increase awareness about VPDs. The advisory board discussions reflect that national immunization guidelines typically do not include routine vaccine recommendations for all adults, but rather focus on those with risk factors. This is the case for influenza, pneumococcal, and hepatitis B immunizations. Overall, knowledge lacks about the VPD burden among health-care professionals and the general public. Even more, there is insufficient information on vaccinology for students in medical schools. Actions from the responsible authorities – medical schools and scientific societies which can advocate for vaccination and a better knowledge in vaccinology – can help address these issues. A preventive medicine culture in the workplace may contribute to the advancement of public opinion on vaccination. Promoting vaccine education and research could be facilitated via working groups formed by disease experts, public and private sectors, and supranational authorities, in an ethical and transparent manner.

KEYWORDS:

• Adult immunizations
• Caribbean
• Central America
• hepatitis B
• herpes zoster
• influenza
• pneumococcal
• Tdap
• Td
• vaccines

Abbreviations

AdBoard	=	Advisory Board
COVID-19	=	Coronavirus Disease 2019
HCPs	=	healthcare professionals
NIP	=	national immunization program
VPDs	=	vaccine-preventable diseases
WHO	=	World Health Organization
PAHO	=	Pan American Health Organization

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Andrea Castrellon for all logistic and advisory board coordination. The authors also thank the Business & Decision Life Sciences platform for editorial assistance and manuscript coordination, on behalf of GSK. Athanasia Benekou provided medical writing support.

Author contributions

All authors participated in the discussion and the development of this manuscript. All authors had full access and gave final approval before submission.

Disclosure statement

LN, ED, MMC, IL and AGH are employees of GSK. ED, MMC, IL and AGH hold shares in company.

All authors received fees from GSK for the conduct of this advisory board. All authors declare no other financial and non-financial relationships and activities.

Availability of data and materials

Data sharing not applicable to this article as no datasets were generated or analyzed during the current work.

Additional information

Funding

GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA funded this study/research and was involved in all stages of study conduct, including analysis of the data. GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals SA also took in charge all costs associated with the development and the publishing of the present manuscript.