KEY POINTS:
A mild autumn and lack of awareness about influenza vaccinations contributed to a drop in the number of people lining up for annual shots, the National Influenza Strategy Group said yesterday.
The total number of vaccinations during the period the Government subsidised its cost was 745,189 - down 2.1 per cent from last year's record figure of 761,150.
The subsidised influenza campaign ran from March to June.
"It would be nice to be moving forwards all the time with regard to increasing usage of influenza vaccine," group spokesman Lance Jennings said.
"However, it is a vaccine that has to be updated annually, we need to re-vaccinate people annually and a lot of people forget influenza is a serious disease."
Dr Jennings said when the vaccination programme was launched in March the weather was usually lovely and winter illnesses were far from people's minds.
"This year we had a particularly mild autumn, with little respiratory disease in the community, consequently there was little talk about such diseases and the need for getting an influenza vaccination."
Dr Jennings said there had also been little media coverage on the effects of the flu.
"All of these factors have an influence on people going to their general practitioner to ask for the influenza vaccination."
Dr Jennings said next year the group was not only going to have information distributed to communities but there would also be greater emphasis on asking doctors and hospitals to contact at risk patients.
People at high risk of contracting such a respiratory disease were toddlers, the elderly and people with respiratory problems.
Dr Jennings said it was not too late for people to get their flu shots, to cover them for the rest of the winter months.
As the subsidised flu vaccination period was over, patients would have to pay for the shot, which cost on average $18.
- NZPA
