Vaccination of adults

Vaccination of adults

An average adult is exposed to thousands of pathogens daily. The immune system, which works continuously and imperceptibly, protects the body from those pathogens. Vaccination helps the body to recognize and combat dangers.

As a result of vaccination, an immunity will be acquired, similar to the immunity that develops after recovering from a particular infectious disease. This means that the human body will later be able to destroy harmful microorganisms when exposed to the relevant disease, before the massive multiplication of those microorganisms. This way, vaccination prevents the spreading of the disease.

The purpose of repeated vaccination is to maintain a sufficient amount of antibodies in the organism to prevent infectious diseases.

The necessity of a vaccination injection depends on:

• what infectious diseases the person has already had;
• what vaccines have they already received;
• what are their workrelated risks;
• whether or not there are dangerous outbreaks of diseases in Estonia;
• where they are planning to travel to in the near future.

If you have any vaccination related questions, contact your family physician or a vaccination office. If necessary, that’s where you will receive new vaccination injections.

Be sure to consider getting vaccinated in the following cases:

1. your work or professional activities are linked to the risk of infection (e.g., medicine or forestry);
2. you exhibit risk behaviour (activities that are accompanied with a risk of contracting an infectious disease);
3. you belong to a group that is characterised by active communication (greater chance of contact with pathogens);
4. you have any chronic heart diseases, respiratory diseases, kidney or liver diseases, diabetes, etc .;
5. you have immunodeficiency (getting sick may be very dangerous to you);
6. you are older (the body may no longer be able cope with serious illnesses);
7. you are constantly exposed to unvaccinated children or children without immunity, the sick or elderly (risk of other infections);
8. you are planning to travel to countries where infectious diseases are prevalent (check the section “Travel vaccination”).

Vaccination is voluntary. Vaccination decisions are important decisions that affect your quality of life, and should therefore be made on the basis of evidence-based science.