Areas we work in / Ngā Wāhi Mahi

Communicable Disease / Prevention of Infectious Diseases through Immunisation

Community and Public Health is committed to encouraging immunisation amongst New Zealanders. Our main focuses are promoting the benefits of vaccination programmes, and certifying the authorised and yellow fever vaccinators that provide this valuable service.

Some Reasons Why Vaccination is Important

Boy flexes his muscles to show how strong he is Community and Public Health is an advocate for vaccination programmes because immunisation helps prevent against many diseases. Immunisation uses the body’s immune system to build resistance to specific infections.

An immunised individual helps protect the rest of the population by decreasing the possibility of a disease spreading. This is important for vulnerable people like infants, the elderly and people with impaired immune systems. However, this effect only occurs if enough people are vaccinated and is known as ‘herd immunity’.

New Zealand has a low child immunisation rate compared to other countries. This results in regular outbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases every few years. The Ministry of Health has a specific target of 95% of all New Zealand two-year-olds fully immunised by 2012.

Download or Order Immunisation Resources from the Community Health Information Centre.

Apply to become an Authorised or Yellow Fever Vaccinator.

List of South Island Immunisation Coordinators (Immunisation Advisory Centre).

Join the Fight: Get the Cervical Cancer Vaccine

All 12-18 year-old girls and young women in Community and Public Health's coverage area are now eligible for the free cervical cancer vaccination programme.

In South Canterbury, the West Coast and Kaikoura, these vaccinations will be available through schools, but for the rest of Canterbury girls will receive the immunisation programme through their local General Practice.

To be fully immunised, girls and young women should receive three doses of the vaccine over a period of six months.

Young women born in 1990 or 1991 are also able to get the vaccination until 31 December 2011.

For more information, visit the following sites:

Documents

	Targeting Immunisation: Increasing Immunisation (Ministry of Health)
	Immunisation Audience Research (Ministry of Health)
	2011 Immunisation Handbook (Ministry of Health)
	National Immunisation Schedule (Ministry of Health)