Regional plan to halt spread of measles in Bay and Lakes district gets greenlight

Regional plan developed to help combat the measles outbreak in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district. Photo / File

Bay of Plenty and Lakes District has been given the green light to launch a joint response plan to stop the spread of measles and close the MMR immunisation gaps.
Sandra Conchie has explored the size of the outbreak and spoken to a key Toi Te Ora Health official about what strategies are being implemented to get on top of the outbreak.

Children aged 5 to 15 years who have not had one measles jab can now be vaccinated under a new joint Bay of Plenty and Lakes health strategic plan to combat the outbreak.

This week Bay of Plenty and Lakes DHBs and the National Health Coordination Centre response manager signed off on joint MMR vaccination strategic intent regional plan.

Children under 5 will also continue to be a primary focus of the outbreak response plan, and those who are overdue for their routine MMR jabs will be recalled by their GP.

Toi Te Ora Public Health Service's incident management team controller Martin Steinmann said the joint plan was focused on "proactively managing and containing" the outbreak.

Since January 1 this year, 66 cases of measles have been confirmed in the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district, of which 24 people had a hospital admission.

Forty were in the Western Bay, 14 in Rotorua, 10 in Taupo and two cases in the Eastern Bay of Plenty area, of which a total 30 were notified between August 1 and November 1.

This included 17 aged under 16, and 17 aged between 16 and 30 years old.

Steinmann said the number one priority was improving the MMR immunisation uptake for children under 5, and to close by half the estimated immunity gap for those aged 5 to 29 years.

"GP practices are being advised to prioritise on-time routine vaccinations and recall children who are overdue for their measles jabs.

Secondly, GP practices, Lakes DHB and Bay of Plenty DHB have now been advised to vaccinate 5 to 14-year-old children, who have not received one MMR, Steinmann said.

"GP practices will implement this through their routines business and via our hospitals, plus young adults over 15 will be offered vaccination opportunities when they present for primary care treatment," he said.

"We continue to carefully follow up cases and contacts to minimise the spread, but we must close our local immunisation gap to ensure that our current issue is resolved, and prevent further local outbreaks," Steinmann said.

GP practices were being encouraged to begin to arrange appointments for patients who requested an MMR and those on existing waiting lists while managing their stocks, he said.

Steinmann said as more vaccines are made available locally health officials would be working to increase the uptake across all ages, focusing initially on children.

Toi Te Ora Public Health had estimated that 15,500 doses of the MMR vaccine would be required by the Bay of Plenty and Lakes district health boards over the next 12 months.

MMR vaccines were ordered fortnightly based on demand, and as GP practices used more vaccine and offered more appointments they would be able to order more, he said.

Western Bay of Plenty PHO, Ngā Mataapuna Oranga, and Eastern Bay Primary Health Alliance were also parties to the plan.

According to the Ministry of Health's immunisation register, 200,382 MMR vaccinations were given in New Zealand this year up to October 18.

Dr Caroline McElnay, the Ministry's director of Public Health, said there were now five regions with strategic response plans specific to their needs- BOP/Lakes, Auckland, Southern, the Waikato and Northland.

"We're confident in the work BOP/Lakes is doing to reduce measles in the community, " she said.

So far this year, 1962 measles cases were confirmed nationwide, including 1584 in the Auckland region.