Town's under-20s offered jabs to counter Meningococcal C outbreak

Huntly mother Chrisla Wallace wants her five children promptly vaccinated against meningococcal C, after an outbreak which has sent the town's rate of the potentially deadly disease soaring.

Her children, all under 9, recently finished their vaccine injections against the B strain.

Now Chrisla Wallace is worried by the meningococcal C outbreak.

"I will get my children vaccinated as soon as they [the vaccinations] start," she said yesterday.

Both strains cause the same potentially deadly disease and are spread by coughing or sharing drinks, but have different vaccines.

Clusters of meningococcal C have occurred before in New Zealand. All pupils of a South Otago high school were offered vaccinations in 2002 after six caught the disease.

This year four Huntly youngsters aged 10 to 20 have been treated in hospital for meningococcal C - they recovered fully - giving the town a rate of 56 cases for 100,000 population. That is six times the national rate for all types of meningococcal disease last year.

Health officials, unable to explain the Huntly outbreak, aim to halt it by offering vaccination against the C strain to all 2400 people aged under 20.

Seventy per cent of pupils and staff at Huntly College - the school attended by two of the affected youngsters - received the one-jab vaccination in June.

The Waikato District Health Board, which is organising the mass vaccination, says the vaccine is safe, takes about 14 days to work and is 90 to 95 per cent effective.

Officials arranged public meetings in the town on Tuesday and tonight before the vaccination clinics next week. Medical officer of health Dr Anita Bell said the turnout of fewer than 20 people at Tuesday's lunchtime meeting was hard to interpret.

The turnout was low at earlier Huntly College meetings, but the vaccine uptake quite high.

Huntly mother Dixon Tineka said she would take her two children to have their jabs as soon as the vaccination started, but many of her whanau were unaware of the importance of immunisation.

"I tell them it is about prevention."

A community health worker, Ngawaina McKinnon, said the outbreak had frightened the community, especially parents. "They are scared there will be another outbreak."

She said Huntly was 80 per cent Maori and the cultural practice of sharing food and drink among whanau and children might be a factor.

"We need to start educating our children that it is important they not share their drink or food."