Experts underline improving seniors' immunization as society rapidly ages

With China's swelling elderly population, health experts have called for developing vaccines to tackle diseases primarily affecting seniors and devising innovative methods to expand vaccine acceptance among the age group.

Feng Zijian, former deputy director of the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention and vice-president of the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association, said that as society rapidly ages and people born during the baby boom of the 1960s get older, China is and will be under great pressure to provide adequate social, medical and rehabilitation services for them.

"The growing elderly population will be confronted with greater risk of infections," he said during a conference held over the weekend. "We are in need of more vaccines to reduce infections during old age."

People aged 60 and above accounted for 19.8 percent of the country's population last year, according to the National Bureau of Statistics.

Liu Hongyan, deputy director of the China Population and Development Research Center, said that it took around 30 years for the proportion of the elderly to rise from 10 to 20 percent, and it is estimated that only 15 years will pass before the proportion reaches 30 percent.

"Moreover, the number of very old people aged 85 and above, which stands at less than 20 million currently, is projected to reach 70 million and even 110 million in the coming decades," she said.

"The aging trend in China is accelerating, which means that the types of vaccines targeting this age group should also be adjusted," she said.

Feng said that a number of existing vaccine products are effective and important tools to protect the health of the elderly, such as doses against COVID-19, influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and herpes zoster.

"In the future, vaccines to tackle pneumonia are also expected to hit the market," he said. "More efforts should also be made to research vaccines that can protect the elderly against antimicrobial-resistant bacterial pathogens and opportunistic infections."

Opportunistic infections are caused by a variety of germs and bacteria, and often occur in people with diminished immune systems.

In early February, the first domestic vaccine against herpes zoster, also known as shingles, was approved for use in people aged 40 and above, bringing the number of herpes zoster vaccines available in China to two.

Li Xiuling, head of the Shanghai Institute of Biological Products, said that the incidence rate of herpes zoster rises with age and increases sharply among people aged 50 and above.

"It is estimated that China has around 12.5 million herpes zoster patients each year, including 5.27 million cases among people aged 55 or above," she said. "An expert consensus released in 2022 has stated that there is currently no cure for herpes zoster and vaccination is the most effective and feasible preventive approach against the disease."

Zhang Yuntao, chief scientist at China National Biotech Group, said that international drugmakers have begun gearing up for creating more vaccines for adults and the elderly since a couple of years ago.

Globally, the market share of adult vaccines rose from 35.6 percent in 2017 to over 50 percent in 2021.

"In China, the market size of vaccines exceeded 70 billion yuan ($10.2 million) in 2021, with adult vaccines taking up 42.7 billion yuan," he said. "The market share of adult vaccines rose from 32 percent in 2018 to 56 percent in 2021."

Besides advancing vaccine development, Feng from the Chinese Preventive Medicine Association also suggested improving vaccination services for the elderly, including rolling out targeted advocacy campaigns.

For years, China has been focusing on ramping up vaccination services targeting babies and children. "The next step is to improve the accessibility and convenience of elderly vaccination services to meet the demands of seniors," he said.

Liu Junhua, deputy director of a district-level disease control center in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, said that the district has taken the initiative to provide free 23-valent pneumonia vaccines for local elderly aged 65 and above.

"We have not only included local residents, but also migrant workers eligible for the vaccine in our jurisdiction," she said. "So far, the vaccination rate has reached 30 percent."

Wang Huaqing, chief expert for the immunization planning program at the China CDC, added that it is necessary to collect data on and analyze the disease burden of all contagious illnesses among the elderly so as to better utilize the role of vaccines in protecting the elderly population in the future.