Chesco adults urged to get vaccinations

Get vaccinated: It’s easy, takes little time and most insurance companies pick up the tab.

Laura Harbage is a public health nurse and Chair of the Chester County Immunization Coalition. She wants adults to get immunized, with the cost for the uninsured sometimes paid for with federal funding.

“Six out of 10 adults in the United States have not received all recommended vaccines and are 100 times more likely than children to die from vaccine-preventable diseases,” Harbage said. “Vaccination is one the easiest and safest preventable care measures available, yet many adults may not know what they need or where they can get vaccines that are not available from a doctor.”

Those questions are answered at the website, www.vaccinefinder.org. Supply a ZIP code and take a simple quiz. Individual answers will lead

to a list of suggested vaccines determined by age, lifestyle and health condition, while based on occupation and other risk factors like travel.

Those vaccines could include pneumonia, shingles, meningitis, hepatitis A and hepatitis B, chicken pox, HPV or measles, mumps and rubella.

Get vaccinated for yourself, said retired nurse and member the Chester County Immunization Coalition Betsy Walls.

“I’m doing it for me,” Walls said. “It’s about me, for me.”

The coalition rolled out the program in three phases: establishment of the vaccine finder website; outreach to physicians; and education of the public.

It’s better to get a vaccine even if you’re not sure you’ve already been vaccinated.

“It’s better to get extra protection than not enough, Harbage said.

Flu season is approaching and many health providers are already stocked with flu vaccine.

“If you could get one vaccine, the flu vaccine is the one,” Herbage said.

Walls said that the benefits of getting the flu vaccine are substantial.

“You owe it to yourself to get the flu vaccine,” Walls said.

For every dollar spent on vaccines, the savings is $13 in societal cost from illness, loss of work, potential hospitalization or death. One in five people that survive a vaccine preventable disease will have a permanent disability.

“Vaccines strengthen your immune system and after age 50 your immune system declines,” Harbage said. “So vaccines are even more important.

“Vaccines are the closest thing to a fountain of youth that we have.”

Michele Steiner, immunization program coordinator, suggests everyone see their doctor.

“We would really like people to have a conversation about vaccines with their clinical provider,” she said.

For more information about vaccine services from the Chester County Health Department, call 610-3446252 or visit www.chesco.org/health

BILL RETTEW JR. – DIGITAL FIRST MEDIA Betsy Walls, left, and Michele Steiner pose while showing how easy it is to get a vaccination.