Meningitis jabs for 17-to-20s

Young people aged between 17 and 20 in the Auckland region will be targeted from next month in the meningitis immunisation campaign.

Up to now, people in the out-of-school age group have not been specifically targeted to receive inoculations for the meningococcal B strain.

Auckland and Manukau district health boards spokeswoman Lauren Young said workplaces would be targeted as well as Defence Force, tertiary and correctional institutions.

Young people attending the Maori and Pacific Island Secondary Schools Festival at the Manukau Velodrome from March 17 to March 19 will also hear about the campaign.

The hip-hop group Nesian Mystik will be at the festival to lend its support. Since the campaign began in Manukau and Auckland last July, nearly 90 per cent of school-age Maori children from 5 to 17 have begun the programme of three doses.

More than 70 per cent of Maori children aged 1 to 4 and more than 95 per cent of Pacific Island children aged 1 to 17 have also received at least one dose.

Yesterday, the Director-General of Health, Karen Poutasi, said the 500,000th dose in the campaign had been delivered. The campaign aimed to immunise about 1.1 million people in New Zealand aged under 20.

She said the first half million doses were an excellent achievement but the challenge was to ensure people received all three doses.

So far about 200,000 have received at least one dose of the free vaccine in the Northland, Waitemata, Auckland, Counties Manukau, Waikato, Rotorua Lakes, Bay of Plenty and Gisborne areas. The campaign will get to other parts of the country over the next five months.

About 130,000 people have completed the three doses.

Lauren Young said the campaign was keen to vaccinate more under 5s and children under 1, who were most vulnerable to the disease.

"The older kids understand meningococcal B is something they do not want to get," she said.

"Three vaccines are essential. It takes a month from the last vaccine before immunity is built up. The other thing is the vaccines are only effective against meningococcal B, which is the most prevalent strain.

"There are other strains around. So parents still have to remain vigilant for the signs of meningococcal disease. It is still a killer."