No meningococcal vaccine 100 per cent effective says ministry

1.00pm

No vaccination is "100 per cent effective" against meningococcal disease, the Health Ministry said today after a toddler vaccinated against one form of disease was put in hospital suffering from another.

The Auckland boy was reported to have had all three vaccinations against the main strain, meningococcal B, but was suffering from a different strain. His condition was not known today.

"We have great confidence that most children who are fully vaccinated ... will get very good protection from the epidemic strain (meningococcal B)," the ministry's vaccine strategy director Jane O'Hallahan said today.

There were several strains of the virus, all of which could be fatal, Dr O'Hallahan said.

About three quarters of cases were the P14 strain, a member of the B strain, which circulated mostly in New Zealand.

"Currently there's no vaccine that protects against all of the strains, that is probably a few years away yet."

Being immunised against the B strain did not weaken resistance to other strains, and could give better protection against other strains, she said.

"But at this point we don't have any particular evidence of that," she said.

She said she understood parents' concerns about immunisation in light of the latest case.

Parents should continue to look for warning signs of the disease in their children.

"Meningococcal disease starts like a flu, and people quickly get a fever, vomiting, stiff neck and dislike of bright lights."

The ministry was monitoring other strains for signs they were reaching epidemic levels, she told National Radio.

The first stage of Northland's B strain vaccine programme began today.

About 11,000 children aged six months to five years were scheduled to get the first of the vaccinations from GPs. There is a six-week gap between each jab.

A further 30,000 children will be vaccinated in schools from the start of the second term in May through to October.

While no major reactions to the vaccine have been recorded, Northland Medical of Health Jonathan Jarman said 55 per cent of toddlers given the vaccine got a red spot and 34 per cent got swelling at the injection site.

Northland is the second region, after Counties-Manukau, to get the vaccine and is part of a national $200 million vaccination programme targeting more than a million New Zealanders.

Twenty-two people have been diagnosed with the disease in the region this year. Since 1991, 320 people have got the disease and 12 have died.

- NZPA

Herald Feature: Meningococcal Disease

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