International Longevity Centre Global Alliance - Designing the Future of Ageing

7th October 2017

On October 5, ILC-BR organized a seminar to discuss the importance of vaccination across all ages. The seminar was held at Iamspe, the Institute for Medical Assistance for Public Servants of the State of Sao Paulo.

Despite rapid population ageing in Brazil, there still is a misconception that “vaccines are for kids”. This leads to a huge loss of opportunity to improve the health of a population, which is ageing quickly. Today in Brazil, there are 47 million people aged 50 and over – the equivalent to the total population of Spain. In the next 30 years, this number will double and as such pass the current number of the population of Germany. This shows the potential of the impact of adult vaccination.

To discuss this topic, ILC-BR brought together four experts of different backgrounds. The first speaker, Dr. Helena Sato of the University of Sao Paulo (USP) and Member of the Technical Committee of the National Immunization Programme, provided the vision of a specialist. The vice-President of the Brazilian Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SBGG), Dr. Carlos André Uehara discussed the topic as a geriatrician working in primary health care. Dr. Maisa Kairalla, President of the São Paulo’s section of the SBGG discussed vaccinations as an ally for healthy ageing and ILC-BR’s board member and professor in public health at USP, Marília Louvison spoke about immunization as a public health measure. After the presentations, Alexandre Kalache moderated a debate with the experts.

The seminar was organized with sponsorship of MSD and support of Iamspe and the University of the Third Age of the University of São Paulo (USP).