South Canterbury’s HPV vaccine uptake remains lowest in NZ

The South Canterbury District Health (SCDHB) board will be boosting its Human Papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme, because the region still experiences the lowest vaccination uptake in the country.

This includes providing extra support for local doctors, promoting pro-immunisation ‘‘good news’’ stories, and providing resources for schools.

It was suggested that doctor teams work with nurse leads to develop a follow-up process and provide catch-up for non-imunised or incompletely immunised girls.

It also suggested developing a plan to transition from three dosages in a year to two once Pharmac approves changes to the programme.

Papers distributed at last week’s SCDHB meeting underlined concern over the rate of uptake in the region. The Health Ministry recently extended the eligibility to all people aged nine to 26, but the majority of the focus is on the nine to 14 year-old age bracket. The Ministry has targets of 75 per cent for those aged 14 as of January. However, SCDHB has managed only a 40 per cent uptake.

SCDHB Director of Patient, Nursing and Midwifery Lisa Blackler said when the HPV immunisation programme began, South Canterbury was above the national average in terms of immunisation rates.

‘‘This means we were ensuring that our girls (boys had not yet been made eligible for free HPV immunisation) were protected from infection with the most common high risk types of HPV that cause cancers and genital warts,’’ she said.

‘‘What the data shows is a clear decline in HPV immunisation. This means, although we have a way of protecting our girls, and now boys, from infection with nine of the most common disease causing HPV types, we are not taking up this opportunity as we have in the past.’’

Blackler said the board was reassured that Medsafe (New Zealand Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Authority) has completed a thorough review of the HPV vaccine and found it to be safe. In Australia and the United States where HPV immunisation programmes have been in place for longer, there is clear evidence of decreases in HPV cancers and genital warts.

‘‘So as a community we can be reassured that the immunisation is effective, if we take it up,’’ Blackler said.