Parents should ensure babies and children are up to date with the vaccinations and pregnant women and those who would be close to newborns are encouraged to do the same, Te Whatu Ora says. Photo: 123rf
A leading paediatrician says the whooping cough outbreak is a child health crisis and Te Whatu Ora must take urgent action.
Three babies have died from the disease this year and there are fears it is spreading undetected.
Paediatrician and head of the Immunisation Taskforce Owen Sinclair said the number of deaths was unusually high given only 11 cases of whooping cough had been reported.
Because the babies were from different parts of the country, it suggested there was widespread transmission, rather than a cluster, he said.
Te Whatu Ora needed to be more proactive about finding and vaccinating pregnant women to prevent them passing the disease to unvaccinated newborns, he said.
Britain has already done that in response to some child deaths last decade and the research showed it works, Sinclair said.
"There is no systemic approach to this in the New Zealand system at the moment. There is no funding, there are no stated goals, there is no requirement to advise pregnant women," he said.
Te Whatu Ora clinical public health head William Rainger said parents should ensure babies and children were up to date with the vaccinations.
And he encouraged pregnant women and those who would be close to newborns to do the same.
But Sinclair said a more organised, systemic approach, to the antenatal vaccinations was needed.
"If we are going to take this seriously we really have to change and take a different approach. And it has to be led from the top, it has to be led by Te Whatu Ora. They need to make a decision and get those things in place," he said.
The approach taken now was "almost fingers crossed and screaming from the watchtower to get vaccinated," he said.
Rainger said the childhood vaccination rates were now dangerously low at 63 percent, when it should be at about 95 percent.
The deaths were very tragic for the families involved, he said.
"It does remind us the whooping cough can be very, very serious, particularly for little babies," he told Checkpoint.