Your Best Shot

At Staying Healthy.

- Amy Greenburg

Most of us are guilty of it – keeping up to date with our children’s jabs but not our own. But, the truth is, adults really do need protection, too – yes, even when we aren’t visiting malaria-laden locations and exotic, third-world wonders with notso-sanitary conditions. So, in honour of World Immunisation Week – the last week of April – we spoke to Dr MARIA TANG of Complete Healthcare International (CHI) about the importance of keeping our own boosters up to date.

For many of us adults, a visit to the doctor for our own vaccinations, rather than our kids’, is usually only an afterthought, if even a thought at all. (“I already got vaccinated as a child”, you might say.) And this lax attitude toward routine adult immunisations is sort of understandable, really, as kids living in Singapore are required by law to immunise against illnesses such as diphtheria and measles, whereas adults aren’t required to follow any such schedule, leaving us “in charge” of actively pursuing protection against the illnesses around us.

“A common myth among Singaporeans is that vaccination is mainly for travellers. This is true for those who travel a lot around Southeast Asia, but there are also certain vaccinations that are deemed important to have while living in Singapore,” says Dr Tang. “Unlike places such as the United States, Europe and Australia, Singapore doesn’t currently offer an official adult immunisation schedule.”