From 1 December 2019, meningococcal ACWY vaccination will be funded for individuals aged 13–25 years in their first year of living in a boarding school hostel, tertiary education hall of residence, military barracks or prison. There will also be a catch-up programme from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2020 for those aged 13–25 years who are already in one of these close-living situation.

Are international students eligible? All students aged under 18 years are eligible to receive funded vaccines as per the National Immunisation Schedule regardless of residency status. Students aged 18 years or older must be eligible to receive publicly funded health and disability services in New Zealand to receive funded vaccines, including meningococcal ACWY vaccine.

How do eligible individuals access the vaccine: From 1 December 2019 those who qualify can make an appointment with us, their primary care provider to receive the meningococcal ACWY vaccination up to 3 months before entering a boarding school hostel, tertiary education hall of residence, military barracks or prison close-living situation.

Ideally, people should be vaccinated at least two weeks prior to moving into a close-living situation

How many doses are required?One dose for individuals who are in their first year of living in a boarding school hostel, tertiary education hall of residence, military barracks or prison; or One dose for individuals who are currently living in a boarding school hostel, tertiary education hall of residence, military barracks, or prison, from 1 December 2019 to 30 November 2020. Individuals who have previously received a dose of meningococcal ACWY vaccine (Menactra^® or Nimenrix^®) do not require a booster dose for 5 years.

Who else can receive funded meningococcal ACWY vaccine? You can also receive Menactra if you are:

Pre/post-splenectomy or with functional asplenia.

HIV positive.

Inherited or acquired complement deficiency.

Linden Surgery and Tawa Medical Centre practice Teams and Tu Ora Compass Health' Clinical Quality Improvement Facilitators: Anne-Maree Delaney and Te Huri Arthur, provided a CVRA breakfast for Maori and Pacific Island young men. They were placed second in the award for Excellence in patient safety and care- For teams or individuals who have improved health outcomes, patient safety, patient experience, equity of access or health literacy for service users. 

Due to the high number of cases of measles currently being reported in Samoa, Tonga, the Philippines and Fiji, the Ministry of Health has revised the priority group to include anyone travelling to this area, (aged 50 and under), who does not have one documented MMR.

If you unsure whether you are travelling to an outbreak area outbreak region can be found at https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/notices/watch/measles-global.

All people need to be vaccinated at least two weeks before travel.

 

We also recommend infants aged six to 11 months travelling to an outbreak area (Overseas or Auckland) have one dose of MMR. Please remember that any child vaccinated before 12 months of age will still need two further doses of MMR.

Other priority groups remain the same.

All children should receive their Schedule vaccines on time at 15 months and 4 years.

Children aged 5 years to under 15 years who do not have one documented MMR vaccination should have one MMR.

Susceptible close contacts of a confirmed case should be vaccinated within 72 hours of first exposure to measles when possible.

 Linden Surgery & Tawa Medical Centre

 

 

THE CCDHB HAS INSTRUCTED OUR MEDICAL CENTRE, THAT THE PRIORITY GROUP FOR MMR VACCINATIONS                                                                                                                                                 IS THE 15 MONTH AND 4 YEAR OLD CHILDHOOD VACCINATIONS.  THE CCDHB WILL PROVIDE  VACCINES FOR THIS COHORT.                                                                                                            THERE WILL BE NO OTHER MMR VACCINES PROVIDED OUTSIDE OF THIS COHORT AT THIS STAGE.

WE WILL ADVERTISE ON OUR WEBSITE www.lindensurgery.co.nz  WHEN THERE ARE VACCINATIONS                                                                                                                                                  AVAILABLE FOR PATIENTS OUTSIDE OF THIS COHORT.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       THANK YOU FOR YOUR COOPERATION. 

Nurses' Kathleen and Sandy from Linden Surgery and Dr Cat Rourke from Tawa Medical Centre, participate in Linden's Woman's Day by providing free Health Checks

 

On Saturday March 2^nd we held our first CVRA breakfast at the Tawa Community Centre.

 Invitations went out to our Maori and Pacific Island patients aged 30-40 who had not had their Cardiovascular Risk Assessment.     26 patients of our attended the breakfast.

Staff from Linden Surgery and Tawa Medical Centre together with Te Huri, Anne-Maree and Sarah from Compass Health (our PHO) provided them with a health assessment.   Dr John Langham gave a talk on heart disease and the implications that it can have on a person’s health journey.  The team pitched in to provide everyone who attended with a delicious healthy breakfast.   Cliff who has had an unexpected cardiac medical event, spoke on his health journey, sharing his first-hand experience, a valuable insight for patients and staff.

We were delighted at the enthusiasm of the participants which made this event a great success.

At present we have no known cases of Measles in the Wellington region.

 The supplier is giving priority to the parts of the country where there are known cases.

 When we receive vaccines priority will be given to those who have never had an MMR dose, starting with children aged 12 months to 5 years. 

The second priority will be those aged 6 to 12 years old who have no documented second dose and then 13-28 year olds, who have no documented second dose.

 Regional Public Health advise:

·        if you are over 50 years old you are considered to be immune as measles was prevalent prior to 1969.

·        if you are aged 28 to 49 years old, and have had one dose of MMR, you are considered to be 95% protected.

 We understand that you may be concerned and want to check your immunisation status. We are experiencing a high number of these calls,                                                                                      in addition to our daily phone calls and will return your call re MMR status within 3 business days.

 For more information please go to http://www.immune.org.nz/

 Nga Mihi

Linden Surgery