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Vaccinator Health Worker Stage 1 Training now available

The Vaccinator Health Worker Stage 1 Training is now available for enrollment. Please see here for more information. About Vaccinator Health Worker Stage 1 Training In May 2022 Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ announced the Medicines Regulations have been updated to include Regulation 44AA, “Alternative authorisation of vaccinators”. This led to the introduction of the VHW role.

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Maintaining high immunisation coverage in the current COVID-19 disease circulating environment.

We have progressively observed a fall in childhood immunisation coverage, leaving our tamariki and pēpē at high risk from vaccine-preventable diseases. It is clear that this has happened through the COVID-19 pandemic, but what many don’t realise is that a decline started in 2016.

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Bexsero funded for special groups from 1 July 2021

PHARMAC has announced the addition of funded Bexsero for certain special groups who are close contacts of a meningococcal disease case or who have a higher risk of meningococcal disease from 1 July 2021.

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Removal of spacing requirements between COVID-19 vaccine and other Schedule vaccines

All the vaccines on the National Immunisation Schedule can now be given concurrently, immediately before or after the mRNA-COVID-19 vaccine, Comirnaty, with the exception of the shingles vaccine (Zostavax). This includes MMR, influenza, HPV (Gardasil 9), tetanus, diphteria and pertussis (Boostrix) and the meningococcal vaccines (Bexsero and Menactra). See the IMAC COVID-19 website, here, for further information.

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Provisional Authorised Vaccinator update course

All authorised vaccinators are required to attend an update course every two years. Some Provisional Authorised Vaccinators are approaching two years since they completed their Provisional Vaccinator Foundation Course in 2020 and due to an administrative change their authorisation does not expire until 2023. These Provisionally Authorised Vaccinators are required to complete a Provisional Vaccinator Update course and will be sent a package code to be able to access the course by the Ministry of Health.

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Quick answers to frequent MMR questions

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Protecting our communities from respiratory illness this winter and next

Position paper from the Immunisation Advisory Centre including: Professor (Hon) Nikki Turner, Professor Peter McIntyre, Dr Joan Ingram, Dr Emma Best, Dr Edwin Reynolds, Dr Liz Wilson. COVID-19 is with us for good and we are now learning to live with it. The SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes it, continues to evolve into new variants, which have so far become more infectious but not more severe. We now need to manage it in our community with all the tools and evidence we have available, adapting our methods as needed in the long term.

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WHO and UNICEF raise alarm on drop in childhood immunisation, so do we

Media Release, 21 July 2022 Child immunisations have dropped so far during COVID that the World Health Organisation and UNICEF are raising the alarm, as is the Immunisation Advisory Centre, IMAC. Internationally 25 million children have missed out on life-saving vaccinations and here in New Zealand Aotearoa we are seeing a similarly concerning trend.

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Last updated: Dec 2019