Parents slated for not getting kids protected

Northland has the poorest infant immunisation rate in the country.

Northland has the poorest infant immunisation rate in the country and nearly 80 diseases that could be prevented by vaccination showed up in the region.

A local paediatrician is laying the responsibility at the feet of parents and caregivers as well as demanding better performance from the health providers responsible for immunisations.

The Northland DHB failed to meet the Ministry of Health's target for increased immunisations in the January to March quarter. Data showed 87 per cent of eight-month-olds had their primary course of immunisation at six weeks, three months and five months on time. The target was 95 per cent.

Northland District Health Board paediatrician Roger Tuck said immunisation was a key factor in the health and well-being of children.

"Children are entitled to be vaccinated and parents who are not immunising their children need to know that they are actively making a decision not to protect them," Dr Tuck said.

In the past 12 months there had been 79 notifications of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles, meningococcal, pertussis (whooping cough), invasive pneumococcal disease and tuberculosis.

"We see children with pertussis, and other serious infections that we know should be non-existent, or at least very rare, in our communities throughout Northland," Dr Tuck said.

Each preventable disease carried its own set of risks and some were more serious at certain ages, he said. Pertussis was most dangerous in young babies. Dr Tuck said one of the concerns was that, at six weeks, children were too young and fragile to be exposed to the "immunological challenge" of vaccination.

But a young infant was much less able to cope with full disease-causing organisms. Immunising/vaccinating on time was important, he said.

Another important benefit of the enhanced pneumococcal vaccination available was the significant protection it offered older people from a common killer of the elderly and frail.