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More than 260,000 young children are eligible for funded flu vaccines from today after Pharmac brought forward an expansion that was due to take effect next year.
Associate Health Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown have welcomed Pharmac’s decision to fund the vaccine for children aged six months up until their fifth birthday.
Last week Pharmac announced the flu vaccine would be funded for the age group from 2027.
“The patient community said that wasn’t soon enough,” Seymour says.
“Pharmac listened. Now, those children are eligible for a funded flu vaccine today.”
Seymour says winter is a challenging period for many New Zealanders and strong flu strains in recent years have made it more difficult.
“Flu season puts a lot of pressure on households, workplaces, schools, and the health system,” he says.
“Today’s decision will give families the support they need to manage the flu this year.”
Brown says the decision comes as the health system manages the most severe flu season in years.
“New Zealand is experiencing its worst influenza season in a decade, with high levels of influenza-related illness and increasing pressure across primary care, emergency departments, and hospitals,” he says.
Brown says while total winter hospitalisations are broadly in line with previous years, they have arrived at once rather than being spread across the season.
He says young children can become particularly sick from the flu and are more likely to end up in hospital, with the youngest infants at the highest risk.
Children can also spread the illness through households, resulting in parents taking time off work to care for them or becoming sick themselves, Brown says.
“That flows through to our hospitals, where emergency departments and paediatric wards fill up at the same time as staff are off sick,” he says.
“Every bed taken by a case of the flu is a bed not available for someone else.”
Brown says evidence for vaccinating children aged six months to four years is clear and bringing the funding forward means parents do not have to wait until next year for the protection.
“Influenza does not stop when winter does, and I’d encourage anyone with a young child who isn’t yet vaccinated to have a chat with their GP or pharmacy.”
