Why people 50 and up are now eligible for pneumonia vaccine, plus who else may need it

Jessica Lozier, M.D., a lung and critical care specialist at MUSC Health, hopes a new recommendation for pneumonia vaccines will change a startling statistic. “When you look at the data, with about 4,000 deaths annually, about 90% of cases and 50% of deaths were in patients who had an indication for the vaccine and were unvaccinated.”

An indication refers to a health condition that puts a person at higher risk for a pneumonia infection. 

 

One condition that eventually affects everyone is an aging immune system. So the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has lowered the recommended age for pneumonia vaccination from 65 to 50. The agency said that’s “the age when the risk for infection substantially increases.”

Lozier takes care of adult pneumonia patients in an outpatient lung clinic and the intensive care units at Ashley River Tower and University Hospital in Charleston. She said it’s hard to see the toll the disease takes in some cases. 

“There have been a huge number of younger people who had an indication that they should get vaccinated who weren’t. Lowering the age to 50 will increase the number of folks who get the pneumococcal vaccine and hopefully prevent unnecessary morbidity and death.”

People can get pneumonia through bacteria or a virus. Vaccines reduce the risk in both cases, Lozier said. “Our pneumonia vaccines are incredibly safe, and they're very effective at preventing death and morbidity in a large group of people.”

That group includes children 5 and under as well as people with certain long-term health conditions. “That's any chronic heart disease, any chronic lung disease – COPD and asthma are common conditions. Anybody with chronic kidney disease, any chronic liver disease, those with diabetes, which we know is unfortunately so common here in the Lowcountry as well as the state at large. Anybody who’s a cigarette smoker as well as anybody with alcoholism,” Lozier said.

“Then add anyone who's immunocompromised due to cancer or medications, certainly HIV, any immunodeficiencies. And then there's some other rare indications like cochlear implants and CSF leaks.” CSF stands for cerebral spinal fluid. 

The CDC said the vaccine doesn’t cause serious health problems for most people. Side effects, such as a fever, are usually short-lived. You can find more information about that on the CDC’s website.

Lozier, an assistant professor in the Medical University of South Carolina’s College of Medicine, said there are two types of vaccines: three pneumococcal conjugate vaccines, also known as PCVs, and the pneumococcal polysaccharide vaccine. She knows the different options can get confusing and suggested people check out the CDC’s information on vaccine timing for clarity.

One thing that’s already clear is that South Carolina has done pretty well when it comes to vaccinating people 65 and up against pneumococcal pneumonia. “We were running about a 69% to 70% vaccination rate. The state of South Carolina is ranked No. 17 nationally, which is good for us. But in our 19- to 64-year-olds, we only had about 20% to 25% of those who had an indication get vaccinated,” Lozier said.

Will people who have those indications, including being 50 or older, get the shots? Lozier hopes so. “This is a vaccine-preventable disease.”