Measles fears increase as Bay vaccination rates fall behind

There are fears an outbreak of measles or whooping cough could reemerge in Hawke’s Bay if children who have missed vaccinations because of Covid-19 don’t catch up quickly.

The number of children getting their jabs on time nationally had fallen by around “a couple of per cent” since March, said Dr Nikki Turner of the Hawke’s Bay Immunisation Advisory Centre.

That was because many outreach services offering vaccination in homes couldn’t operate during lockdown or level 3.

“A lot of our services to our most vulnerable communities were curtailed for a while,” she said.

“The second reason for the drop off is families [have]. . . concerns about bringing children, bringing infants to health services while there may be Covid around.”

University of Auckland vaccinologist Dr Helen PetousisHarris said Ma¯ ori children were disproportionately missing out.

“There’s the issue of accessing services, and also more and more recently there’s been misinformation that is really targeting Ma¯ ori in particular . . . those conspiracy theories are feeding into that and driving a further wedge.”

Access to health services was the main issue affecting the potentially hundreds of children who may have missed their inoculations in the Bay, said district health board immunisation co-ordinator Fiona Jackson.

There had been a “notable drop” in Ma¯ ori and Pasifika children not getting their jabs in the last quarter. In order to get them back on track, the health board was offering more vaccinations in homes for those hard-to-reach groups, and it was working with Ma¯ ori community groups to bring more wha¯ nau on board.“It’s making sure that people know that general practice is open for business . . . and the messaging is getting out into the community that it is safe to be out accessing providers for immunisation,” said Jackson.

The Ministry of Health was forecasting a drop of about “one percentage point” in immunisation rates because of Covid, but it would not know exactly how many children had missed them until data was collated and analysed in November.

“The ministry is considering how to support catch-up immunisation for this group over the coming months,” a spokesperson said.

Sue Crengle, a Ma¯ ori GP and public health researcher at the University of Otago, said a nationally coordinated catch-up plan was needed, as it was usually left up to individual clinics, primary health organisations or district health boards to organise.

Novel approaches, including offering jabs away from doctors’ clinics, could also be tried to allay wha¯ nau concerns about taking well children to the doctors.

Turner said catching up on whooping cough and measles vaccinations should be top priorities to avoid future outbreaks.

This was because the immunisations had to be given on time to help prevent outbreaks of those diseases.

It was also critically important because of predictions internationally there would be outbreaks of measles because immunisations had fallen to the wayside in many countries struggling with Covid-19.

“The moment our borders ease up a bit, measles will start returning and coming to New Zealand.

“We must not become complacent.”

— RNZ