Wellness Wednesday is sponsored by Intermountain Health
If your holiday plans include gathering with older and younger generations, there's something seniors should do beforehand.
Dr. Kristen Dascomb is the medical director for infection prevention at Intermountain Health, and was involved in a CDC study showing how a new vaccine can protect seniors from RSV.
“It was run by the CDC, but several large organizations including Intermountain in Utah participated, contributing data to really demonstrate how our patients, our Utah folks responded to the vaccine and how did it, how did it work in a real-world situation?” said Dascomb.
Intermountain was a key part of a massive national study on the effectiveness of a vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, just approved in 2023.
“What it shows is that by administering the vaccine to those over 60 you can actually prevent ER visits and hospitalizations by up to 80 percent,” said Dascomb.
Specifically, vaccine recipients, over 60 years old were 80 percent less likely to be hospitalized and 81 percent less likely to have a critical illness, meaning a stay in the ICU and even death.
The study included tens of thousands of patients in 8 states and it's timely because RSV strikes hardest as the holidays approach.
“It is unfortunately more common than we suspect, and it occurs at a time when we all want to just be together healthy. And so, this is an easy and inexpensive way to really prevent these significant complications that can contribute not only to immediate health concerns, like going to the hospital and having these consequences or long-term health concerns such as the consequences of being hospitalized at that age. It can be very traumatic and very traumatic to the family as well.” said Dascomb.
The vaccine is inexpensive and widely available at doctor's offices and pharmacies. Plus, it's likely effective for years to come since RSV doesn’t mutate like the flu does.
So this holiday season, if you don't want to look at your grandchildren or grandniece and nephew as a little time bomb that's gonna get you, getting the RSV vaccine is the thing to do.
“I think it preserves healthy time with your family It’s an easy way to get a really good security to be able to spend quality time with your family at a time when it could be risky,” said Dascomb.
