Taranaki kids given out-of-date vaccine

Out-of-date Covid-19 vaccine was given to 56 Taranaki children, the district health board has admitted.

The tamariki, aged from five to 11, were given a vaccine that had expired by between one and 11 days.

The mistake occurred between March 28 and April 6 at three providers – the New Plymouth Taranaki DHB Vaccination Hub, in Powderham St, affecting 39 children, with nine children affected at Life Pharmacy in the Centre City shopping mall and eight at Tui Ora.

Clinical advice from IMAC, New Zealand’s expert advisers on immunisation, confirmed that no harm to health would come from being given expired vaccine, medical officer of health Dr Catherine Jackson said.

‘‘I acknowledge that this news will be distressing for parents and whānau. All families are being actively contacted and an individualised plan made with them,’’ Jackson said.

A review of the vaccination database said no other children within the programme were affected.

The error was due to a ‘‘misinterpretation of the Ministry of Health’s extended expiry date on some paediatric vaccines on March 9, which extended the Pfizer Pediatric expiry dates from six to nine months, Taranaki DHB vaccination boss Bevan ClaytonSmith said.

Following this, two paediatric Pfizer vaccine batches within the New Plymouth Vaccination Hub were wrongly extended by three months rather than 10 weeks.

Once the use of expired vaccines was discovered on April 6, all sites were informed, and all stock subsequently removed from circulation.

This was an isolated event restricted to Taranaki and had not affected vaccinations given to those aged 12 and over, ClaytonSmith said. He apologised to the whānau and tamariki involved.

‘‘A review was started as soon as we found out, to understand what had happened and who was affected from this.

‘‘The Taranaki DHB then put in measures to contact and apologise to all whānau affected. This error should not have occurred, and we are putting in a comprehensive a range of modifications within our vaccination programme to prevent future events occurring.

‘‘The paediatric vaccine programme is extremely important to keep our children safe from the Covid-19 virus and to date more than 8000 paediatric vaccines have been administered across our region.’’

Clayton-Smith said in health they were always looking at areas in which to improve, and they would ‘‘learn’’ from this.

When asked how the

Taranaki DHB planned to restore confidence, Clayton

Smith said they had been ringing the families involved all day, who had been ‘‘very supportive’’.

There had been more than 8000 child vaccinations administered in Taranaki, he added, and he wanted to reassure people that there was no risk to health.

‘‘It’s the putting right counts,’’ Clayton-Smith said.

This is not the first time Kiwis have been given expired vaccine.

In October, 15 people in Wellington received Covid-19 vaccines 24 hours after the vaccine had expired.

At the time, Covid-19 vaccination and immunisation programme national director Jo Gibbs said no-one had been harmed from receiving the expired doses.

They were encouraged to receive a further dose after at least three weeks in case there was any impact on the effectiveness of the dose.

The first of about 14,000 eligible children in Taranaki got their first dose of the vaccine against Covid-19 on January 17.

The dose is about one-third of the Pfizer dose given to adults.

As at April 13, 46% of children in the region had received their first dose and 18% have had two doses. that