- Hon Simeon Brown
- Hon David Seymour
Associate Health Minister David Seymour and Health Minister Simeon Brown welcome Pharmac's decision to fund the flu vaccine for children aged 6 months up until their fifth birthday from today.
"Pharmac voice is listened to once again as Pharmac extend funding criteria for the flu vaccine from today," Mr Seymour says.
"Last week Pharmac announced that the flu vaccine will be funded for children aged 6 months up until their fifth birthday from 2027. The patient community said that wasn't soon enough. Pharmac listened. Now, those children are eligible for a funded flu vaccine today.
"Winter is a challenging period for many Kiwis. Strong flu strains in recent years have made it much more difficult. Flu season puts a lot of pressure on households, workplaces, schools, and the health system. Today's decision will give families the support they need to manage the flu this year.
"This decision means from today over 260,000 young children eligible for funded flu vaccines.
"This is another example of the culture we are building at Pharmac. Pharmac funding the medicines that Kiwis need, based on the feedback of Kiwis in need."
Mr 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. While total winter hospitalisations are broadly in line with previous years, they have arrived all at once rather than spread across the season, and that concentration is what our hospitals and wider health system are experiencing right now.
"Young children get sicker from the flu than most people realise, and they are more likely to end up in hospital, with the youngest infants at the highest risk of all.
"They also spread it easily. A child picks it up at daycare, brings it home, and within days the whole household is unwell, with parents taking time off work to care for them or ending up sick themselves.
"That flows through to our hospitals, where emergency departments and paediatric wards fill up at the same time as staff are off sick. Every bed taken by a case of the flu is a bed not available for someone else.
"The evidence for vaccinating children aged six months to four years is clear. It reduces their chance of catching the flu, it reduces their chance of ending up in hospital, and it protects the people around them by cutting transmission. Bringing this funding forward means parents do not have to wait until next year to get that 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."
