A coalition of 21 advocacy groups is pushing for ACIP, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, to lower the age-based recommendation for pneumonia vaccines in older adults from age 65 to age 50.
ACIP is set to meet on Oct. 23 and Oct. 24.
If approved, the vote would add people in the 50- to 64-year-old age bracket to the two age groups for which the vaccine is already recommended: children under 5 and adults over 65.
According to the CDC, 150,000 older Americans are hospitalized with pneumococcal pneumonia each year and about one in 20 people who get pneumococcal pneumonia will die. The death rate is higher for people who are 65 and older.
An Oct. 15 letter to ACIP, co-authored by the National Association of Nutrition and Aging Services Programs (NANASP), National Caucus and Center on Black Aging (NCBA) and the National Hispanic Council on Aging (NHCOA), stated that lowering the age would increase vaccination rates for at-risk ethnic populations.
Over 53% of Black, 41% of Hispanic and 50.2% of Asian Americans have been vaccinated for pneumonia, compared with 69% of white adults, among those who are currently eligible, according to the letter.
Vaccinating adults between the ages of 50 and 64 also would help protect people with compromised immune systems, the groups say.
“The upcoming meeting is especially critical because we are right in the middle of respiratory season, so any change they make to their recommendation can greatly benefit older Americans while the threat of pneumonia is very much still circulating in our environments,” Bob Blancato, executive director of NANASP, said in an article at RI News.
“Also, just given the fact that there are only three meetings a year, it is important that the committee take the opportunities to improve policies during each meeting so we aren’t further restricting access to protections that so many in our population will benefit from,” Blancato said.
An online petition from NANASP has received more than 5,000 signatures so far from Americans across the nation, the article said.
