Immunisation Improvements Targeted

02/09/2009 | Immunisation Improvements Targeted

Health workers in the MidCentral District Health Board region are encouraging all parents to get their children immunised on time, or catch-up, in a bid to improve this region’s vaccination rates.

In particular they are targeting the early childhood vaccinations, especially covering measles, and whooping cough which are causing the most problems at the moment with outbreaks in some regions, but not yet in the MDHB region.

Local health workers want parents to try and get vaccinations for their children on time so their family can get the most benefit from the protection immunisation provides.

There are still epidemics of these diseases in New Zealand because our immunisation rates are too low to control them. Today vaccines protect us against around 30 diseases, and more are expected in the future. In New Zealand children are offered vaccinations against 11 diseases free of charge.

Children are immunised free in New Zealand under the National Immunisation Schedule. The Schedule is the series of vaccines that are offered free to babies, children, adolescents and adults. On this schedule vaccines are given at six weeks, three months, five months, 15 months, four years and 11 years and protect against important diseases like whooping cough, diphtheria, tetanus, measles, mumps, rubella, polio, and other bugs.

However, if you miss and are a bit behind with the vaccines it’s never to late to catch up and it’s easy to find out if any immunisations are due. If your child is under four-years-old contact the National Immunisation Register on (06) 350-8908 and they will look up what immunisations your child has had.

Medical Officer of Health Dr Jill McKenzie says: “In the MDHB region, which includes Manawatu, Horowhenua, Tararua districts, and Otaki 74% of our children have had all their vaccinations by two-years-old. For the whole of New Zealand 77% of two-year-old children have had all their vaccines.

“We usually need 90-95% of our children vaccinated to stop these diseases spreading so we still have plenty of room to improve and get more of our children up-to-date with their vaccines. And in the past we have been around 90% for this region so we know we can get back there.

“It is important to get immunisation done at the recommended age (according to the national immunisation schedule). Vaccines are given at the best age for our body to develop the strongest immunity and at the time when we are most likely to come into contact with these infections - the more time that passes after a vaccine is due the more time our child is at risk of being exposed to these infections and getting sick. We have lots of room to improve with getting our immunisations done on time e.g. only 66% of children from our region are up to date with the measles/mumps/rubella vaccine (MMR) when they are 18-months-old, and this vaccine should be given at 15-months-old.

“Immunising on time also protects the babies in our community who are too young to be vaccinated but can still catch the diseases. If our older children are vaccinated on time then they can’t pass the disease onto their younger brothers and sisters who are too young for immunisation to work.”

There has been a big increase in measles cases in New Zealand recently, including a large outbreak in Christchurch involving over 100 cases since July and some of these have needed to go into hospital for treatment. Usually we only see on average about 20 cases of measles throughout New Zealand a year.

Most of the Christchurch cases have been in children who have not been immunised for measles. Immunisation with the MMR (measles, mumps, and rubella) vaccine gives 90-95% protection against infection with measles. In Auckland there have around 20 cases so far and none of these have been in people who have been up to date with their immunisation. The problem with measles is how infectious it is – if you have no immunity to measles you have a 90% chance of developing the infection yourself if you are in contact with someone who is infectious.

So far we have not had any measles disease confirmed in our region so we have the opportunity to get our children up to date with vaccinations and prevent outbreaks like the one in Christchurch.  The good thing about Christchurch now is that they have been able to give about 3000 immunisations since the start of the outbreak and the number of new cases is decreasing.

Pertussis or whooping cough is another disease which is increasing in numbers. Because the immunity to whooping cough decreases over time we can never completely get rid of this infection in our community (unlike for measles).

Usually every three to four years we have what we call an epidemic (lots of extra cases over what we expect) of whooping cough illness, and at the moment nationally we are seeing a rise in the number of whooping cough cases which could mean we are heading for an epidemic this year, or early next year.

The last whooping cough epidemic in New Zealand was in 2004-2005. In 2004 there were 3489 cases of whooping cough notified, of which 159 were hospitalised. There was one death.

Whooping cough is very serious in young babies, especially newborns. They struggle to breathe and many need to be hospitalised. Because immunity can decrease over time, older children and adults can be infected with the bug and then pass whooping cough on to babies. So, it is important to get babies and young children who are at risk of serious illness from this disease immunised at the recommended ages starting at six-weeks-old.

So where do people go to check if they are immunised or if they want to get immunised?

• If you want to immunise or catch up on immunisations book with your GP nurse, or ring your Primary Health Organisation - Horowhenua (06) 367-6433; Manawatu (06) 354-9107; Tararua (06) 376-6255; and Otaki (06) 364-8291- to find out where you can go.
• If your child is under four-years-old contact the National Immunisation Register (06) 350-8908 and they will look up what immunisations your child has had
• When you ring to make an appointment advise reception it is for a vaccination
• You will be seeing the nurse and the vaccine is free, there should be no charge
• If you want more information about immunisations ring 0800 IMMUNE (0800 466 863) or go to www.immune.org.nz

CONTACT: Communications Unit: (06) 350-8945