Asplenia and Adult Vaccination

Vaccines are especially critical for people with chronic health conditions such as asplenia.

If you do not have a spleen or your spleen does not work well, talk with your doctor about:

Influenza vaccine each year to protect against seasonal flu
Tdap vaccine to protect against whooping cough and tetanus
Hib vaccine to protect against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) if you were not previously vaccinated with the vaccine
Pneumococcal vaccines (both types) to protect against pneumonia and other pneumococcal disease
Meningococcal vaccines (both types) to protect against meningitis and other meningococcal disease
Zoster vaccine to protect against shingles if you are 60 years and older
HPV vaccine series to protect against human papillomavirus if you are a man up to age 21 or woman up to age 26
MMR vaccine to protect against measles, mumps, and rubella if you were born in 1957 or after and have not gotten this vaccine or do not have immunity to these diseases
Varicella vaccine to protect against chickenpox if you were born in 1980 or after and have not gotten two doses of this vaccine or do not have immunity to this disease