Ministry of Health offering extra mumps vaccinations as epidemic spreads

Auckland's mumps outbreak is now considered to be an epidemic.

The Ministry of Health has responded to calls for action on the mumps epidemic and plans to offer extra vaccinations early next year.

In Auckland alone, more than 1000 people have contracted mumps since the start of this year.

The outbreak was now an epidemic because it could not be contained, public health officials said recently in a joint letter to the Ministry of Health.

Hundreds of thousands of Aucklanders would be offered the vaccinations, Radio New Zealand reported.

Ministry director of public health Caroline McElnay said it planned to offer vaccinations to children and young adults - those most at risk of contracting the disease - early next year.

"Given the numbers of mumps cases there's been in Auckland and given the efforts there have been to try and contain the spread of mumps in Auckland, it's very clear that we need to do some additional vaccination programs," she told Radio New Zealand.

The ministry would work with DHBs to decide how to best target the age group of 11-29 year olds, whether that's through schools, tertiary institutions or health providers, McElnay said.

Radio New Zealand reported that Immunisation Advisory Centre director of research Helen Petousis-Harris said reaching the 11-29 age group would be difficult.

"You can't just target schools, you've got to think how can we best serve these people and it's going to involve a lot of strategy," Petousis-Harris said.