{"id":607707,"date":"2026-09-22T01:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607707\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T01:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T01:50:16","slug":"thousands-of-children-under-5-receive-flu-vaccine-as-sickness-overwhelms-health-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607707\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands of children under 5 receive flu vaccine as sickness overwhelms health system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thousands of children under five have had a flu shot since it was made free for all of them<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On 1 September, Pharmac made vaccinations free for under fives after hospitals and clinics became overwhelmed<\/a> with this season’s very infectious strain of influenza A.<\/p>\n

In figures provided on Tuesday, Health NZ said 3,843 under-fives had had their flu shots between then and 20 September.<\/p>\n

Of these, 1723 were in the Northern region, with more than 800 each in the lower North Island and the South Island regions, and 435 in the Midland region which comprises Taranaki, Waikato and Bay of Plenty.<\/p>\n

The number vaccinated in those 19 days was three and a half times the amount of the two weeks before the vaccination was free.<\/p>\n

Auckland GP Mamaeroa David said a vaccination clinic at a K\u014dhanga Reo shortly after the change was one of the highlights of her career.<\/p>\n

As well as under fives, the team immunised kuia and parents, including the wh\u0101nau of a three-day-old baby. They also did catch-up vaccinations for a two-year-old who had never been vaccinated, she said.<\/p>\n

“The wh\u0101nau were really ready to engage because they had suffered a hard flu season this year – in fact there was still a third of that k\u014dhanga reo roll not at kohanga on the day,” she said.<\/p>\n

“It was just amazing to be able to not have those wh\u0101nau pay for those little k\u014dhanga reo p\u0113p\u0113 to have their flu vaccine.”<\/p>\n

It was heartening to know they were helping protect whole families, said David, who is also the senior M\u0101ori medical advisor for the Immunisation Advisory Centre.<\/p>\n

In figures released last week, hospitalisations for children with flu-like illness had finally dropped, after spending weeks climbing.<\/p>\n

But David warned there were still a lot of “snotty illnesses” circulating and there was often a sting in the tail of the winter season.<\/p>\n

Health NZ was also encouraging parents to get their children immunised.<\/p>\n

The flu vaccine was free for children from six months until their fifth birthday. Previously, it was only free for those at higher risk of serious disease.<\/p>\n

The immunisation director of Health NZ’s National Public Health Service, Nikki Canter-Burgoyne, said it was not too late for anyone to protect themselves.<\/p>\n

“Vaccination remains important, even for people who have already had influenza this season, as it helps protect against influenza viruses they may not have previously encountered,” she said.<\/p>\n

This season’s vaccination would be available into the new year, she said.<\/p>\n

It was free for many others, including those over 65 or people who had health conditions that put them at greater risk.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thousands of children under five have had a flu shot since it was made free for all of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607708,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,111,139,69],"class_list":["post-607707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607707"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607707\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607708"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}