SINGAPORE - Vaccination at every stage of life after childhood remains one of the most cost-effective measures to protect against infectious diseases, a study has found. The body's immune function is weakened and has an increased susceptibility to infectious diseases such as the flu and pneumonia as one ages. And this can potentially turn into other health complications. Despite vaccines being highly effective in disease prevention, South-east Asia lags behind the rest of the world when it comes to getting a person immunised through the course of his life - a process otherwise known as life-course immunisation. The region falls significantly short of the 75 per cent immunisation target set by the World Health Organisation, said the report, published on Tuesday (June 29). It is titled The Decade Of Healthy Ageing In Asean: Role Of Life-Course Immunisation. For instance, Singapore's influenza vaccination rate stands at only 14 per cent, compared with 75 per cent in Britain and 83 per cent in South Korea. The report was done by the EU-Asean Business Council, accounting firm KPMG in Singapore, and pharmaceutical giant Sanofi, with the support of the Western Pacific Pharmaceutical Forum...