To: / General Practitioners, Practice Nurses, Practice Managers, Health Professionals
From: / Rayoni Keith,Manager, Immunisation
Subject: / Coverage update,PMS/NIR issues, ADT Booster shortage, WCTO stickers, Ebola, Holiday Immunisations.
Season’s Greetings and coverage update from Immunisation Champion Dr Pat Tuohy
We’re aiming for 95 percent of eight month old babies celebrating their first Christmas to have all their immunisations up to date, so Santa Claus is making some lists and checking them twice. Nearly 700 practices got all their eight month olds immunised in October, and a certificate recognising this achievement will be falling into their Christmas stockings soon. We’re hoping for even more in November.
Your NIR administratorcan provide you with a list of babies in your area yet to complete their vaccinations on time. Nationwide, around 315 babies aged between five and seven months of age need to be vaccinated before the end of this year in order to reach 95 percent immunisation coverage. If one of them is in your practice, please make every effort to book them in before the holidays.
Our first report into rotavirus coverage shows good uptake across the population, at 82 percent getting their first dose by age 2 months. Coverage for Māori is slightly lower than other ethnic groups at 76 percent. The Ministry is planning on evaluating the introduction of rotavirus vaccine in more detail in 2015.
The team at the Ministry wish you season’s greetings and a well-deserved break after all the hard work everyone has put in this year to improve immunisation coverage.
PMS/NIR issues
The Ministry has been helping PMS vendors address errors in rescheduling PCV for some patients. This affected patients who had their immunisations rescheduled before 1 July 2014, when PCV10 changed to PCV13. As there are fewer than 180 such patients remaining, there is no further action proposed to resolve this, but we are aware of the impact of this issue now for future schedule changes.
In many cases, PMS vendors claim that they were not notified by their customers of issues that would have otherwise been addressed more promptly. If you are experiencing errors with your PMS messaging the NIR, please in the first instance contact your PMS vendor and keep track of the follow up communication.
PMS vendors are responsible for supporting their products. The Ministry does not have an oversight role in supporting PMSs and can at the very best try to influence better outcomes. If practices are unsatisfied with the service they are getting from their PMS vendor, the Ministry recommends escalating complaints with the vendor, within the terms of the contract with the vendor.
ADT Booster (Td) vaccine shortage
There is no longer a shortage of ADT Booster vaccine, which is offered at ages 45 and 65 years and for tetanus prone wounds, as supplies have arrived in New Zealand. Boostrix will no longer be funded for those events.
Well Child TamarikiOra Immunisation Record Stickers
The Ministry will shortly be discontinuing the HE1309 Immunisation Record sticker, which was published to support the transition to the 2014 Immunisation Schedule. The Immunisation Record sticker should only be used for babies who have the old Well Child TamarikiOra Book but are eligible for rotavirus vaccine, eg those born between 19 March and 1 July 2014. It is not necessary to replace a child’s old immunisation record or certificate unless it has been lost.
Ebola
As of 26November, a total of 15,935 cases of Ebola, including 5,689 deaths have been reported in eight countries. Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia continue to be the three most affected countries. Mali, Nigeria, Senegal, Spain, and the United States of America have had initial case(s) or localised transmission imported from a country with widespread and intense transmission. Following two incubation periods without any further cases, the outbreaks in Senegal and Nigeria have been declared over. An unrelated outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has also recently been declared over.
The Ministry is continuing to monitor the evolving situation closely. Guidelines for all health professionals are available on the Ministry website, as well as a patient management guideline for primary care. These documents will be regularly updated and most recent versions can be found at:
Check patients are immunised before the holidays
With increased travel over the holiday season, it is important to ensure that routine immunisations, such as MMR and polio vaccinations are up to date prior to travel.
Measles is a highly infectious virus that spreads easily from person to person through the air, via breathing, coughing and sneezing. It affects both children and adults. A number of countries overseas continue to have measles outbreaks, including parts of Europe, Asia (particularly the Philippines, Vietnam and China), Africa and India. Closer to home, there have been outbreaks in the Pacific in parts of Australia, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and the Federated States of Micronesia, as well as in New Zealand.
Measles outbreaks overseas will continue to occur from time to time until this disease is eliminated. New Zealand is at risk of outbreaks if travellers who are not immune bring the infection back into the country. This is also the case for some other vaccine preventable diseases, such as mumps and rubella.
While polio has been eradicated from New Zealand, and the Western Pacific region was declared polio-free in 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared the international spread of wild poliovirus in 2014 to be a Public Health Emergency of International Concern. States currently infected with wild poliovirus include Pakistan, Cameroon, the Syrian Arab Republic, Afghanistan, Equatorial Guinea, Ethiopia, Iraq, Israel, Somalia, South Sudan, Madagascar and Nigeria.
If you have any queries about anything in this update, please email .