Why vaccines are not just for children

#VaccinesWork. This is the theme chosen by the World Health Organization for the 2019 World Immunization Week (24-30 April). The WHO estimates that, across the world, 20 million children are still unvaccinated or under-vaccinated. At a time when “healthy ageing” is becoming a top priority for governments across the world, vaccination remains an underused strategy, even though it is known that our immune function declines with age, making us more susceptible to disease. The most striking illustration of this is influenza.