As One of Canada’s Top Killers, Why Isn’t Pneumonia Taken More Seriously?

December 13, 2024
By: Dr. Samir Sinha, Julie Dunning, Ivy Wong, Michael Nicin, Dr. Shara Nauth - Updated in 2024 by Arushan Arulnamby

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Canada continues to fall short of its targets for vaccinating older adults against pneumonia, even though they are at higher risk of contracting this lung infection — and far more likely to die from it. In the updated version of its 2019 report: As One of Canada’s Top Killers, Why Isn’t Pneumonia Taken More Seriously? the NIA finds that, unfortunately, despite the Public Health Agency of Canada’s (PHAC) goal of achieving 80% pneumococcal vaccination coverage for adults 65 and older, only 54.7% of this group had received the vaccine by 2023.