Kiwis dice with death by spurning flu shots

By MARTIN JOHNSTON health reporter

Fewer than half the New Zealanders entitled to free influenza vaccine injections received them last year.

The World Health Organisation recommends that countries aim to vaccinate 80 per cent of high-risk groups - those aged over 65 or with certain chronic diseases.

WHO official Dr Daniel Lavanchy complained in January, while Britain was in the grip of an epidemic of the Sydney A influenza strain, that immunisation campaigns had failed to reach their targets in many countries.

The Health Funding Authority here made an influenza vaccine free for over-65s in 1997, and extended the programme to those with a range of chronic illnesses before last winter. But only 52 per cent of the elderly group and an estimated 15 per cent of the other category took up the offer.

Dr Nikki Turner, of the Immunisation Advisory Centre, said it was "hugely concerning" that so few people were receiving the free injections.

However, it appeared more people were being vaccinated ahead of the coming influenza season this winter.

Worldwide, about 10 per cent of the population a year catch an influenza virus, which makes people acutely sick for five to seven days on average, but can also cause serious complications.

About 470 people a year die of it in New Zealand, and up to 5000 are admitted to hospital.

The authority says the vaccine cuts hospital admissions by half and deaths by two-thirds for people aged over 65. It takes up to 14 days to give full protection, so is best administered before the influenza season.

The vaccine costs about $20 from GPs for those not entitled to the free scheme.

In the wake of the Northern Hemisphere epidemics, worried New Zealand health authorities, doctors and the vaccine supplier set up a strategy group earlier this year to promote immunisation.

The vaccine is free again this year for the at-risk groups until the end of June.

Meanwhile, the fight against the influenza virus has just been joined by a new drug.

Roche Pharmaceuticals on Monday launched its oral Tamiflu capsules. They join Glaxo Wellcome's Relenza, which is taken through an inhaler device. Both are neuraminidase inhibitor drugs that are meant to be taken within 48 hours of the onset of symptoms.

They require a doctor's prescription, and attract no Government subsidies.

Tamiflu retails for $65 to $80 in Auckland pharmacies. Relenza cost around $70 last year, but with the competition Glaxo says the recommended price at many pharmacies is now around $55.

Roche says clinical trial results show that, when used quickly enough, Tamiflu produces reductions of 40 per cent in the severity of the symptoms, 30 per cent in their duration and 50 per cent in the incidence of complications like pneumonia.

Glaxo says Relenza likewise reduces the severity and duration and gets people back to their normal activities about two days sooner than they would without it.

Neither the drugs nor the vaccine works on the common cold, which is different from influenza but is often confused with it.

But if you do not get the vaccine and cannot afford the drugs, the advice from GPs College chairman Dr Ralph Wiles to flu sufferers is to take plenty of fluids, perhaps some paracetamol for fever and to rest.