Many adults are not familiar with most vaccine-preventable diseases:
· Shingles: Only 43 percent say they are extremely or very familiar with this disease, while the lifetime risk of getting it is 30 percent.
· Hepatitis B: Only 40 percent familiar with a disease that leads to liver cirrhosis and liver cancer. Some people regard hepatitis B immunization as unnecessary, based on their misconception that this is a disease for which they are not at risk. However as many as 16 to 30 percent of hepatitis B cases have no known source of infection.
· Meningitis: Only 36 percent familiar with this serious disease that can kill otherwise healthy young adults in 48 hours.
· Pertussis (Whooping cough): Only 32 percent familiar with pertussis, a disease that has been on the rise in the U.S. for three decades and is most deadly in infants. Adults need one booster shot.
· Human Papillomavirus (HPV). Only 30 percent are familiar with this viral illness that causes 70 percent of all cervical cancers.
· Pneumococcal disease: Only 30 percent know about this infection that kills up to 4,500 U.S. adults annually.