A new position statement from the Journal of the Indian Academy of Geriatrics is drawing attention to one of the most overlooked aspects of healthy aging in India: adult vaccination. The expert-led document highlights a striking disconnect between disease burden and vaccine uptake among older adults. While influenza is estimated to cause approximately 125,000 deaths annually in India, nearly two-thirds of those deaths occur among adults aged 65 years and older.
Despite this burden, influenza vaccination coverage among older Indians remains just 1.59%. The findings are based in part on data from the Longitudinal Ageing Study in India (LASI), which showed that lifetime vaccination coverage for commonly recommended adult vaccines remains below 3%. Coverage was reported at 2.75% for tetanus-diphtheria vaccination, 1.82% for hepatitis B, 1.59% for influenza, and only 0.74% for pneumococcal…
