NZ child immunisation rates climb, Govt urged to address community disparities - The Front Page

More than 80% of Kiwi kids are now fully immunised by 2 years old. Photo / 123rf

Childhood immunisation rates in New Zealand have hit a three-year high, with 80.2% of Kiwi kids now fully immunised by 2 years old.

Seven months ago, 75.7% were up to date. So the 4.5% leap forward is a welcome statistic for the Government that aims to get 95% coverage by 2030.

University of Auckland senior lecturer and research virologist Natalie Netzler told The Front Page that while child immunisation rates are slowly climbing, rates in certain communities are still a huge worry.

“What we’re seeing for some of our Māori communities is around 35% immunisation coverage and 44% for some of our Pacific communities.

“This is really concerning because after the 2019 outbreak of measles in Samoa, we saw over 80 people die. Even more tragically, they were mostly children under the age of four.

“I think one thing that we could really do better as a nation is have Government funding that really backs community leaders who are trusted within that community, who can help share the right information, in the right way.

“We saw this during Covid. The more work we did in this, the more investment we made, the higher those immunisation rates got.

“We actually saw for a while there Pacific communities leading the rates in terms of New Zealand vaccinations against Covid,” she said.

Netzler said the reasons why some rates are so low are complex.

" One of the real battles we have is misinformation and disinformation all about vaccines, but particularly about MMR.

“I think what’s really important is that we get more funding from the Government to make sure that we can have community-led initiatives.

“We see a lot of access barriers in our harder-to-reach communities, but we also see some real champions. We see cases like the Moko Van in Te Tai Tokerau, which is taking the vaccine out to people who can’t get to a clinic, which is really encouraging,” she said.

Auckland case

The country remains on high alert after an Auckland ferry worker tested positive for measles.

They were infectious while on board 11 Fullers360 sailings on May 5, at a Kelston supermarket, and the Downtown car park on Customs St.

Twenty-two staff at Woolworths Kelston were exposed and identified as close contacts.

On May 7, they were at Unichem New Lynn and Pak’n Save Mt Albert.

The marine crew member had recently travelled to Asia, but they weren’t infectious on their flight home.

• Anyone at these locations at these times needs to check they have immunity to measles.
• You are considered immune to measles if you have proof of two doses of the MMR vaccine.
• People born before 1969 or who have evidence of having measles previously are also considered immune.

Latest locations of interest in Auckland

Listen to the full episode to hear more about how to prevent measles and what to do if you think you have it.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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