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Do adults need to be immunized to avoid an epidemic?
Medical expert of the article
Last reviewed: 02.07.2025
When it comes to fighting the epidemic, everyone talks about the need for childhood vaccination. But what about adults? Should they be vaccinated, when and against what?
Indeed, immunotherapists are seriously worried: in Ukraine, almost no adults get mandatory vaccinations, in particular, against diphtheria. Why? The main factor is the lack of necessary information. Few people know that there are a number of mandatory vaccinations for adults, too.
Experts have explained which vaccinations you need to remember after age 20, and what can happen if you don’t do this.
The Ministry of Health of Ukraine provides for mandatory revaccination against diseases such as diphtheria and tetanus. The fact is that the immune protection that is formed after vaccinations against these diseases exists only for 8-10 years. Therefore, it is recommended to get re-vaccinated at 26 years of age, and then every 10 years.
In some countries, adults are re-vaccinated against whooping cough: in Ukraine, the mandatory nature of such vaccination depends on the epidemiological situation. At the moment, there is no urgent need for such vaccination.
The Ministry of Health also defined a list of professions whose representatives are required to undergo mandatory vaccination. These are people who, due to their professional activities, may directly contact dangerous pathogens. Among such professions are medical workers, veterinarians, workers in farms and meat processing plants, employees of children's institutions, etc.
According to statistics, 30 people with whooping cough and tetanus have died in Ukraine over the past three years. Last year, the World Health Organization noted that the vaccination range in Ukraine is the smallest among other European countries. Therefore, doctors are worried, since there are all the prerequisites for the development of an epidemic.
It is generally accepted that an infectious epidemic does not occur if more than 90% of people have immunity from the disease. In our country, this figure is less than 40%.
As leading immunotherapist V. Kotsarenko points out, most Ukrainians do not get vaccinated due to internal migration. When moving from one locality to another, people remain assigned to a clinic according to their registration. An additional factor is poor health education. A person may remember the need for vaccination only when they get a job (and even then not always), or when they get injured by a rusty nail.
"There are episodic outbreaks of the same diphtheria in the adult environment. Moreover, the disease is much more severe than in childhood. Regarding tetanus, the statistics are also disappointing. When infected with a tetanus bacillus, the risk of a patient getting sick without vaccination is much higher. Repeated vaccinations are vitally important, since we are talking about truly dangerous infectious pathologies - the probability of a fatal outcome is very high," V. Kotsarenko concluded.
As for children, over the past year only 46% of young patients have been vaccinated – and this is not even every second child.
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