"Prevention is better than cure” is a fundamental principle of modern healthcare. In this episode of the Next Five, in paid partnership with GSK, we look at health care prevention in ageing societies, with a particular focus on vaccine uptake. Ever since 1796, when Dr. Edward Jenner inoculated an 8-year-old boy against smallpox with a vaccine containing the milder strain cowpox, vaccination has become a part of the preventative medicine armoury. Vaccines have lowered the impact of many diseases, and benefits go beyond the health of the individual by reducing the cost and burden placed on healthcare systems and society. The COVID-19 pandemic placed a fresh spotlight on vaccines, highlighting the need but also, in some instances, the ambivalence towards them. By 2030, the number of people aged 60 and over will have increased by more than a third to 1.4 billion people. Even with the lessons learnt from the pandemic, low adult immunisation uptake remains a global problem that needs urgent solutions.

In this episode I speak with Kate Hashey, Director of Communications and Government Affairs at GSK, who leads their adult immunisation work and discusses the role vaccinations play in the healthy ageing of our societies and how we must bolster action in the future to embed adult immunisation as the standard of care . Murray Aitken, Executive Director of the IQVIA Institute for Human Data Science, highlights hyperlocal data showing trends in adult immunisation globally. David Sinclair, Chief Executive Officer at the International Longevity Centre in the UK, offers insight into how we can live longer, healthier lives and where the UK sits compared to other countries on preventative healthcare spending and solutions.

Sources: FT Resources, European Commission, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, British Medical Association, OECD, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

This content is produced in partnership with the Financial Times’ Commercial Department

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