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Review
. 2023 Dec 31;19(1):2195786.
doi: 10.1080/21645515.2023.2195786. Epub 2023 Apr 11.

Vaccine co-administration in adults: An effective way to improve vaccination coverage

Paolo Bonanni  1 , Robert Steffen  2   3 , Jörg Schelling  4 , Lina Balaisyte-Jazone  5 , Inga Posiuniene  5 , Maciej Zatoński  6   7 , Pierre Van Damme  8
Affiliations
Review

Vaccine co-administration in adults: An effective way to improve vaccination coverage

Paolo Bonanni et al. Hum Vaccin Immunother. .

Abstract

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic highlights that complications and mortality associated with infectious diseases increase with age. Various vaccines are recommended for adults, but coverage rates remain suboptimal. Although co-administration would improve vaccine uptake and timely immunization, this is not routine practice in adults. We review key data on co-administration of vaccines in children and adults to reassure healthcare providers about its safety and advantages. In European countries and the United States, combined tetanus, diphtheria, and acellular pertussis boosters as well as meningococcal and human papillomavirus vaccines are recommended for healthy adolescents and adults of certain ages. Vaccination against influenza (annually), pneumococcal disease, and herpes zoster is recommended for older adults and specific risk groups. While co-administration is well established in children, it is less common in adults. Travelers can also receive multiple co-administered vaccines. Pediatric and travel vaccine co-administration has a well-established positive benefit-risk profile and is an efficient and cost-saving strategy to improve coverage. Healthcare providers could more often recommend and practice vaccine co-administration; this would not risk patient safety and health, would improve protection against vaccine-preventable diseases, and would help comply with national vaccination calendars. Recommending bodies may consider revising vaccination schedules to reduce the number of visits.

Keywords: Healthcare provider; concomitant; immunization; primary care; simultaneous; vaccine uptake.

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Conflict of interest statement

PB discloses support by GSK for participation in advisory boards, formative events, and Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory Board for Shigella vaccine. RS discloses support (grants, consulting fees, support for attending meetings and/or travel, payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speakers’ bureaus, manuscript writing, educational events, participation on Data Safety Monitoring Boards or Advisory Boards) from Bavarian Nordic, Emergent BioSolutions, GSK, Merck, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, Takeda, Valneva, outside of the submitted work. RS is president of the International Society of Travel Medicine Foundation. JS discloses consulting fees from AstraZeneca, Bavarian Nordic, GSK, Sanofi Pasteur, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, MSD, BioNTech, Seqirus, Takeda; payment or honoraria for lectures, presentations, speaker bureaus, manuscript writing, or educational events from GSK, Sanofi Pasteur, Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson, MSD, BioNTech, Seqirus, Takeda; support for attending meetings and/or travel from Sanofi Pasteur and holding shares from Valneva, outside of the submitted work. LB-J was an employee of GSK at the time of the study. IP and MZ are employees of GSK and hold GSK shares. PVD reports grants obtained by the University of Antwerp from GSK, Pfizer, Sanofi, Merck, Takeda, Baxter, CanSino China, Themis, Osivax, Johnson & Johnson, Abbott, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, PATH, Flemish Government, and European Union, and participation to Janssen Vaccines and Virometrix Data Safety Monitoring Boards, outside of the submitted work. Neither of the authors declares non-financial relationships and activities.

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Figure 1.
Plain language summary.
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