Seniors like Bev Black know how frightening pneumonia can be.
After a lifetime of smoking, she developed COPD, or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a disease that leaves her vulnerable to lung infection. In 2009, she ended up in intensive care on a breathing machine after becoming ill with pneumonia.
“That was quite a scare with pneumonia. I was in hospital just under seven weeks,” she says.
It’s because of people like Black that doctors say it’s so important for healthy people to get the flu shot. Immunology researcher Dr. Dawn Bowdish says it comes down to preventing illnesses that can turn into pneumonia later.
“The reason (the flu shot) helps prevent pneumonia is because influenza often comes first and then bacterial pneumonia follows, so if you don't get influenza, you may not get pneumonia,” she said.
Seniors are advised to get a flu shot every year, but the immune systems of older people just don’t work as well as those of younger people, so they don’t always mount a good response to the vaccine.
Young people, on the other hand, do respond well to the shot, and if they avoid flu infection, there will simply be less flu virus circulating in the air that could infect seniors such as Black.
Pneumonia kills more than 600 people every year in Ontario. Most cases are caused by bacteria, such as Streptococcus pneumoniae, but other bacteria can cause it to, as can viruses such as the flu virus.
Most Canadian children get vaccinated as infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae with Prevnar 13. It’s recommended that seniors and those with chronic health conditions get that vaccine as well as Pneumovax 23, which covers even more bacterial strains.
Not only will the vaccines help prevent pneumonia, they could also prevent pneumococcal meningitis (a brain infection), endocarditis (a heart muscle infection), and septic arthritis (an infection of a single joint, such as a knee).
Dr. Bowdish says pneumonia can be frightening and life-threatening on its own, but a bout of the lung infection can leave lasting health effects even in those who survive.
“It can accelerate cardiovascular disease, metabolic disorders. Certainly, it can accelerate diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease or other lung infections. And there's even a link to an accelerated rate of developing dementia,” she says.
A long hospitalization with pneumonia often leads to weight and muscle loss -- something that can cause some seniors to lose their independence.
Black’s weight dropped to 72 pounds when she was in hospital. She credits a photo of her granddaughter that was taped to the end of her hospital bed for helping her through.
Now, Black has been vaccinated against pneumococcus and gets the flu shot every fall, while working with the Ontario Lung Association to educate others.
With a report from CTV Toronto’s Pauline Chan
