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Meningococcal B Vaccination Programme

NEW ZEALAND has had epidemic levels of group B meningococcal disease since 1991. Since then there have been 5,400 cases of the disease and 220 deaths. About half of all meningococcal disease cases occur in children under five years.

Meningococcal disease rates for Maori and Pacific peoples are particularly high. Between 1996 and 2001, the incidence rate for Pacific peoples was 47 per 100,000 population, compared with only nine cases per 100,000 of the European population.

In the 1990s, a case was made to the Government to develop a vaccine for the meningococcal strain of the disease and to formulate a mass immunisation strategy for all under-20s. The Government committed $200 million to the project and a target was set to vaccinate 90 percent of all under-20s. This was a big challenge for the Pacific community, whose vaccination rates were around 50 percent.

A strain-specific vaccine was developed and clinical trials undertaken to ensure the vaccine was safe and effective. Care was taken to involve the Pacific community and ensure that the proportion of Pacific people in the trials reflected the higher incidence of the disease in the Pacific population.

Pacific representatives were involved at all levels of the immunisation programme, from membership of the key strategic planning group – the Meningococcal Advisory Group set up by the Ministry of Health – through to involvement at the PHO and DHB level, and at local community level.

The vaccination roll-out began in July 2004 in Counties-Manukau DHB and the eastern corridor of Auckland DHB. It is now underway in every DHB.

It was recognised that a Pacific strategy was needed in rolling out the vaccine. A Pacific PHO Coordinating Group was set up and a comprehensive strategy developed to get the whole Pacific workforce behind the campaign and to raise awareness among the various Pacific communities.

A feature of the campaign was the close collaboration between different parts of the Pacific and health communities. Pacific health workers who could speak the seven main Pacific languages were widely used and proved to be very innovative in reaching the diverse pockets of the Pacific community. At a local level, Pacific organisations had a major impact on the high uptake rates as the campaign progressed.

The MeNZBTM campaign has been very effective in reaching its objectives of 90 percent vaccination rates. The uptake has been higher among Pacific peoples than any other ethnic group. In the northern region of New Zealand, with the largest concentration of Pacific people, cases fell by 70 percent among Pacific people between 2003 and 2005. In the decade between 1995 and 2005, the proportion of Pacific children fully immunised at two years rose from 53 percent to 82 percent. This compares with the rate for all children, which rose from 72 percent to 77.5 percent.