A ground-breaking Northland programme to vaccinate 34,000 young people against deadly meningococcal C is featured in the latest New Zealand Medical Journal.
Northland District Health Board started the unprecedented mass vaccination campaign in October 2011 after an outbreak of meningococcal C killed three Northlanders.
It was hoped to inoculate up to 40,000 people aged between 12 months and 20 years across the region, as they were most at risk of the deadly disease.
On Friday, the New Zealand Medical Journal published The Northland Emergency Meningococcal C Vaccination Programme paper co-authored by Northland District Health Board medical officer of health Dr Clair Mills, with researcher Liane Penney.
The Medical Journal article says the collaborative efforts of the Northland health sector enabled the timely delivery of a quality emergency vaccination programme to over 34,000 children and young people - 73 per cent of the target population - in 12 weeks.
One of the features of the campaign was using social media such as Facebook to try to get those young people who may not normally interact with traditional health services. The campaign also saw vaccination units set up in shopping malls and mobile units for better access.
While it was a significant achievement, the vaccination programme also provided opportunities to identify gaps and potential for improvements to routine immunisation services.
"Equitable vaccination coverage cannot be achieved without implementing strategies to improve the availability of a range of accessible and appropriate services," Dr Mills said.
"Community clinics, with a walk in, no appointment approach, in a range of fixed locations and mobile units, provided an appropriate and accessible option for over 3000 children and young people - 10 per cent of the total vaccinated - who may not have otherwise received a vaccination."
She said general practice services remain an essential option for accessing vaccination, particularly for the pre-school population. General practice services are also the preferred option for some school-aged children and youth.
"However meningococcal C vaccination coverage in Northland suggests general practice teams need to continuously review and improve their processes in order to optimise access for their patients and reach high equitable vaccination coverage," Dr Mills said.
School-based programmes demonstrated that equitable, high coverage could be achieved when vaccination services were taken to where children were, reducing barriers to access, she said.
School programmes also needed to continuously review their systems and processes to ensure all students had equal opportunity to access vaccination services at school, particularly young adults.