November 03, 2020
Vaccination rate drop alarms experts
The director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre is alarmed at new data showing a decline in immunisation coverage.
Auckland University Professor Dr Nikki Turner says it could mean thousands of New Zealand infants are unprotected from serious, but vaccine-preventable illnesses.
The Ministry of Health reported vaccination rates of infants dropped over the last quarter, which included the COVID lockdown, when compared to the previous year
The decline in the areas of greatest socioeconomic deprivation was 4.4 percent, compared to a 2.4 percent fall over the rest of the country, and among Māori infants in the fall was percent.
Babies under the age of six months who live in the Northland, Tairāwhiti and Lakes DHBs are the least likely to be vaccinated.
Dr Turner says it means a greater risk of diseases like whooping cough, which need to be vaccinated against in the first six weeks of an infant's life.
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