Vaccine timetable set for Wairarapa | Wairarapa News | Local News in Wairarapa

All young people in Wairarapa, aged six months to 20 years, will be targeted early next year to be immunised against the meningococcal B virus, claimed by the Ministry of Health to be at epidemic proportions in New Zealand.

Meningitis, an infection of membranes that cover the brain, can strike people down within a few hours of feeling unwell with flu-like symptoms.

The virus can also cause septicaemia, a serious infection of the blood. There are several different strains of bacteria which cause meningococcal disease including A, B and C.

The B strain is the one targeted by the Ministry of Health and the first 250,000 doses of the new vaccine have been given out in Auckland. Careful monitoring of this first stage of the immunisation programme has resulted in very few adverse affects, according to the Wairarapa's District Health Board's portfolio manager, Debi Lodge?Schnellenberg, who has taken on the role of managing the immunisation programme for Wairarapa.

The local programme will be carried out throughout 2005. "It's a huge task, with the essence being extensive planning, including the establishment of a national register which will monitor people's immunisation history."

Three doses are given, six weeks apart.

Consideration is also being given for a programme to vaccinate the under-six-month-old babies but this is still in the planning stages.

The start date for the local immunisation programme is May 16, 2005, when schools will be visited by a team of nurses. There are just under 8000 Wairarapa schoolchildren to be immunised.

Those not at school and under 20 will be directed to their GPs where it is anticipated special clinics will be run.

"Everything is still very much in the planning stage but come January when a national publicity campaign gets under way, all will become clear," Mrs Lodge-Schnellenberg said.

One message she wants to get clearly across is the Meningococcal B is a killer disease and not to be under-estimated.

Figures show that for every 100 people who get the disease, four will die and 20 will be left with some degree of serious disability such as brain damage or deafness. The bacteria can be spread through close contact between people. The sharing of food or drink, kissing coughing or sneezing are common ways.

The most recent Wairarapa case of meningococcal disease which was the C strain, was caused by the sharing of lip balm.