A mobile health clinic in Central Otago is fighting the ongoing measles outbreak by offering free MMR vaccinations to seasonal workers before the busy summer harvest season.
Uruuruwhenua Hauroa in Alexandra is running the programme, travelling to orchards across the district to make the vaccinations accessible for Recognised Seasonal Employer (RSE) workers.
The programme was run through the mobile bus or late-night drop-in clinics.
Nurse Lana John said the workers come from a variety of different immunisation programmes, with a vaccine offered if they have a gap in their record.
“What we do here is take the safe approach of checking where they may have come from, and their vaccination status.”
She said: “We’re seeing presentations to a place like ours where they may feel more comfortable.”
Her team along with other local providers reached 360 vaccinations for seasonal orchard workers in the past year, with the programme ramping up for more in the next few months.
Bridget Hiscock from Panmure Orchards said it was a brilliant idea for the business.
“For our staff, it’s been amazing. They can just walk down the road to the orchard beside us, everyone comes in, everyone has a chat, eats, gets the injection, has fun… it’s no big deal.”
She supported the initiative after a mumps outbreak scare a few years ago.
“We had one of our workers came down with mumps… so we rung up the local medical centre [and said] what do we do?”
She brought the staff down for vaccinations to “try and stop it” spreading but “another one came down with it and then they declared us a national outbreak”, she said.
“Five had the mumps and seven didn’t get it.”
With recent measles cases reported in Dunedin and Queenstown, Urlich Ruwurup from Vanuatu, who has been working on and off in New Zealand for nine years, told 1News the vaccine was critical.
“It is important to take the vaccine because it helps me and my family back home,” he said.
Immunisation Advisory Centre’s Dr Emma Best said she believed outreach programmes like this were great, especially for short-term overseas workers.
“Most of [the cases are] introduced from travel and then form clusters, so knowing that people who are visiting and working in New Zealand are safe from measles.
“[It’s] really important to protect the Pacific that we make sure that they’re not taking measles back with them as well.”
Health NZ told 1News that seasonal workers were a priority for vaccination, and said people were also able to get an MMR vaccine through their GP, Hauora Māori, a Pacific health provider or pharmacies.
