GSK China and Xinhua News Host Roundtable on 'Healthy Aging through Preventive Vaccination' at CIIE

On November 6, to further advance the construction of Healthy China and support the proactive response to the national strategy for an aging population, GSK China (GSK), in collaboration with Xinhuanet Co., Ltd., hosted a media roundtable event themed "Healthy Aging, Prevention First" at the 6th China International Import Expo. Experts from various disciplines, public health professors, representatives from grassroots medical institutions, and others attended to jointly discuss how to coordinate resources and strengths to establish an age-friendly disease prevention and management system under the current backdrop of an aging society, and to promote high-quality development in middle-aged and elderly health management.

Group Photo of Attendees

  Middle-aged and elderly people "suffer from multiple diseases simultaneously," urgently needing to establish proactive health awareness

Recently, the National Health Commission of China pointed out that by around 2035, the population of people aged 60 and above in China is expected to exceed 400 million, entering a phase of severe aging. Promoting healthy aging is a long-term strategy to actively address population aging. However, the health status of the elderly in China is not optimistic. Professor Jiang Hua, Director of the Geriatrics Department and General Practice Department at Shanghai East Hospital (affiliated with Tongji University), introduced: "The elderly are the group with the highest prevalence of chronic diseases, and the phenomenon of 'multiple coexisting diseases' is very common. Moreover, elderly people with chronic diseases face a significantly increased risk of contracting infectious diseases, such as herpes zoster, a common infection among the elderly, which often leads to more severe conditions after onset. This also greatly increases the difficulty of managing and controlling chronic diseases, becoming an increasingly serious public health challenge."

In addition, elderly people with rheumatic immune diseases should also pay attention to the prevention of infectious diseases. Professor Jiang Lindi, Director of the Rheumatology and Immunology Department at Zhongshan Hospital, Fudan University, reminded: "Patients with rheumatic immune diseases already have disordered immune functions, most of whom suffer from organ function damage and take multiple immunomodulatory drugs, leading to reduced immunity. Compared with the general population, their risk of contracting infectious diseases is significantly increased, and infections are more likely to result in serious consequences."

Elderly people should not only live longer but also healthier and with a higher quality of life. Therefore, strengthening disease awareness among middle-aged and elderly people, enhancing their prevention consciousness, and establishing a proactive prevention mindset are of great significance for the construction of healthy aging.

  Strengthening Middle-aged and Elderly People's Awareness of Vaccination, Joining Hands to Promote the Construction of Healthy Aging

The "Opinions on Implementing the Healthy China Action" published by the State Council proposed to accelerate the shift from a disease-centered approach to a people's health-centered approach, mobilize the whole society to implement the prevention-oriented policy, carry out the Healthy China Action, and improve the health level of the entire population. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party also pointed out the need to adhere to prevention as the main focus and enhance the capacity of grassroots disease prevention, treatment, and health management. Vaccination is an important means of preventing diseases. For middle-aged and elderly people, actively getting vaccinated can not only reduce the infection rate of related diseases but also lower potential medical expenses, reducing the disease burden while improving the quality of life for middle-aged and elderly individuals.

However, despite evidence of the benefits of vaccination and recommendations from numerous authoritative guidelines, the overall vaccination rates for the three major infectious disease prevention vaccines (influenza vaccine, pneumococcal vaccine, and herpes zoster vaccine, etc.) among middle-aged and elderly people in China remain low. The low vaccination rate among the elderly is influenced by various factors, such as the awareness and emphasis on diseases and vaccine-related knowledge by both doctors and patients, vaccination costs, and the accessibility and convenience of vaccination services. Peng Derong, Director of the Pengpu New Village Community Health Service Center in Jing'an District, Shanghai, stated: "Community health service centers are the gatekeepers of residents' health. Through the family doctor contract service, we regularly conduct health assessments for residents, and at the same time, use big data technology to promptly identify health risks among residents and provide targeted health advice. For example, if it is found that a resident's protection period for the pneumococcal vaccine has expired, we will recommend timely booster shots; for residents who meet the relevant age requirements, we may suggest timely vaccination against herpes zoster. By conveying the concept of 'being the first person responsible for one’s own health' to residents and prioritizing prevention, we continuously improve the vaccination rate among middle-aged and elderly people in the community, prevent common infectious diseases, truly act as health gatekeepers, and strengthen the line of defense for disease prevention in middle-aged and elderly individuals."

In terms of continuously improving the accessibility of innovative vaccines and raising disease prevention awareness among middle-aged and elderly people, enterprises also play an indispensable role. Feng Bixia, Vice President of GSK and Head of China Vaccine Business, stated: "As a global biopharmaceutical company with over a century of history, GSK deeply understands that promoting disease prevention and vaccine accessibility is an essential path toward sustainable human health development, and firmly believes in the value vaccines bring to all humanity. Shingrix, our herpes zoster vaccine, is one of our most representative vaccine products. While responding to policy calls and meeting disease prevention needs, we look forward to helping China’s large population of middle-aged and elderly people prevent diseases more effectively in the long term and improve their quality of life. In the future, we will continue to accelerate the introduction of innovative vaccine products while strengthening cooperation with local enterprises, medical associations, industry groups, and media organizations, deepening our commitment to the Chinese market. We aim to contribute to enhancing the happiness and security of the people and to support the construction of China’s public health system as well as the early realization of the ‘Healthy China 2030’ national strategy."