Anti-jab decision upsets minister

Annette King

Health Minister Annette King last night accused Tariana Turia of failed leadership after the Maori Party co-leader spoke out against the meningococcal B vaccination programme.

Mrs Turia, a former Associate Health Minister, told the Herald on Sunday that after careful consideration she decided against her grandchildren, aged 3 and 5, receiving meningococcal B vaccinations.

She said the vaccine had not been properly tested, the epidemic had peaked (both points are denied by health authorities), it did not protect against other strains of the disease and, because the illness was associated with overcrowding, the Government should provide better housing.

She also urged greater spending on type 2 diabetes, saying it was a much greater problem among Maori and Pacific people than meningococcal disease.

Last year, 342 cases of meningococcal disease were reported, including eight deaths. Of the 252 cases in which the strain was defined, 184 were the epidemic B strain. For under-5s, the rate of all meningococcal disease among Maori and Pacific Islanders was more than three times higher than among Europeans.

An estimated 115,000 people have been diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. The rate for Maori and Pacific people is about three times higher than for Europeans.

Said Ms King: "I'm incredibly disappointed because she was my Associate Minister of Health when the decisions were made. She was privy to all the information, the papers, the debate. She was there when the decision was made to fund the MeNZB programme.

"She never raised issues about the priority or funding for the programme when she was my associate. I believe this is a piece of political posturing; she just happened to join the wrong political bandwagon."

The Green Party has also criticised the decision to start the campaign without subjecting the vaccine to phase 3 clinical trials.

The ministry maintains it was appropriate not to do these trials and to rely instead on the vaccine's phase 1 and 2 trial data and on the earlier phase 3 trials on its "parent" Norwegian vaccine.

Ms King said Maori health workers and Maori families were "absolutely committed to ensuring that their whanau are immunised. It's a failure of leadership from her [Mrs Turia]".

"It's not as if we're not putting huge emphasis on diabetes and other issues that face New Zealanders. This [meningococcal B] is something we can prevent now."

She said they had not traded one disease off against the other.