MOSCOW, March 4. / TASS /. Studies show that diphtheria and other childhood infections increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in old age. In this regard, one should not neglect vaccine prophylaxis, said on Thursday the director of the Russian Gerontological Research and Clinical Center of the N. N. NI Pirogova, chief freelance geriatrician of the Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation Olga Tkacheva.
“It seems to us that what happens in childhood, and the vaccinations that our children receive, in general, does not matter in later life. But there are publications that indicate that transferred in childhood, for example, diphtheria and others childhood infections increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease in old age, "she said at the scientific and practical conference" Features of immunization of infectious diseases during the COVID-19 pandemic."
Tkacheva explained that this is due to the fact that the syndrome of systemic inflammation is triggered already in childhood, which then leads to an increase in the rate of aging. “Therefore, all these infectious diseases that we meet throughout life, we then recover, but they leave a mark, smoldering systemic inflammation, which is one of the mechanisms of aging. Therefore, vaccination is actually not just the prevention of some infectious diseases, it also affects the rate of aging, she said.
According to the World Health Organization, about 50 million people in the world suffer from senile dementia, of which two-thirds have Alzheimer's disease (memory loss, primarily short-term). In Russia, about 1 million people suffer from this disease. There are many causes of Alzheimer's disease, so now there are no drugs that would cure it.
