Pasifika medical providers are mobilising to vaccinate their community most at risk as the number of measles cases increases to 16 nationwide.
While herd immunity needs to be at 95% to prevent an outbreak, data on fully vaccinated kids from a public health specialist shows that’s not being met.
Cook Islands, Samoan and Tongan communities are all in the low eighties and only 73% of kids of Fijian ethnicity are immunised.
Health providers have told 1News vaccine hesitancy is having a major impact in Auckland.
Chief operating officer for The Fono Sally Dalhousie said its hugely concerning as it’s often the Pacific babies that end up in hospital because of high rates of children who are not vaccinated.
“There’s a lot of hesitancy in the community a lot of hesitancy… it does continue and we’re hoping that this outbreak will help mobilise our people,” she said.
She’s out on the road with her outreach team who have spent Saturday going house to house offering measles vaccinations to their clients. The Fono has had great success with this but it’s challenging work as they are finding some families are resistant to getting their children vaccinated.
Public health expert Sir Collin Tukuitonga said people have become weary of vaccines since Covid-19.
“There’s clearly misinformation and disinformation from influential people who question the value and safety of vaccines,” he says.
There’s real fears about the spread of measles in multigenerational living and at big community events – given it’s so contagious.
Nurses going house to house
Etu Pasifika has been promoting a free vaccination clinic this weekend.
While only a handful of families trickled through, Etu Pasifika nurse director Falena Prouting said combined with other initiatives trying to capture patients after hours it is making a difference.
“We are trying very hard so our nurses actually go to the home and vaccinate at the homes..as well we have another sister clinic here in south Auckland that does our Twilight clinic,” she said.
She said there is more of an uptake from the community to get vaccinated since this recent measles outbreak.
That’s certainly the case in Wellington today – news that there are now six cases in Wellington drove the Pasifika community to a measles clinic in Stokes Valley organised by national advisory service Information New Zealand.
Organise Muliagatele Bella Bartley said more than a hundred got their free vaccination today.
“The community is in need of this sort of event and as you can see the community have come in numbers and so you know we didn’t wait for the Government or anybody to tell us to run this event,” she said
Her organisation has been working hard she says to deliver education information to churches to help communities understand the benefits of immunisation and the devastating impact measles can have.
